Descriptive epidemiology of Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever cases admitted to Kabul main hospitals during 2015 to 2018

Abstract EN

Crimean – Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a deadly viral disease which is transmitted to humans by tick bites and contact with infected animal and humans’ fluids.

This is a retrospective study designed to identify the descriptive epidemiology of registered CCHF cases and their related fatalities in Kabul’s 12 public and private hospitals during 2015 - 2018.

Totally, 521 CCHF cases and 71 deaths have been registered in two public hospitals only (mainly in Antani hospital).

These cases were from 28 out of 34 provinces of Afghanistan, with more than half of the cases (50.3%) from Kabul.

More than 75% of cases were male and 24.8% were female (p <0.001).

The median age of the CCHF patients was 29 years old (range = 3 – 95), where majority of cases (74.8%) occurred in the patients between 15 – 45 years old.

CCHF cases have been recorded in all four seasons of the year, where the cases were 11.9% (61), 55.85% (291), 27.1% (141) and 5.4% (28) (p <0.05) in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively.

Results of this study indicate that CCHF is a recurrent disease in Afghanistan and the prevalence of the disease has increased dramatically in recent years.

Active surveillance to detect infected and infested animals with CCHF virus and hard ticks, and combat against ticks are essential to control and prevent the disease in human populations.