General Description
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a widespread tickborne viral disease, a zoonosis of domestic animals and wild animals, that may affect humans. The pathogenic virus, especially common in East and West Africa, is a member of the Bunyaviridae family of RNA viruses. Clinical disease is rare in infected mammals, but is commonly severe in infected humans, with a 30% mortality rate. Outbreaks of illness are usually attributable to handling infected animals or humans. CCHF is distributed throughout Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, northwestern China, central Asia Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent.
The virus genome is circular, ambisense RNA in three parts - Small (S), Middle (M) and Large (L). The L segment encodes the RNA polymerase; the M segment encodes the envelope proteins (Gc and Gn); and the S segment encodes the nucleocapsid protein. The envelope protein is initially translated as a glycoprotein precursor which is then cleaved into two smaller proteins. Based on the sequence data seven genotypes have been recognized: Africa 1 (Senegal), Africa 2 (Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa), Africa 3 (southern and western Africa), Europe 1 (Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Russia and Turkey), Europe 2 (Greece) Asia 1 (the Middle East, Iran and Pakistan) and Asia 2 (China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).
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