Climate Change Causes "Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever"

Scientists in the UK have issued a warning about a new 'deadly virus' that kills almost every second patient even as the government works to prepare for future pandemics.

The emergence of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) as a result of climate change has been warned of as being "highly likely" by the government's Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee.

Since it is spread by ticks or animal tissue, it is hard to cure and has a fatality rate of up to 40%, according to the WHO.

Additionally listed as a "priority" disease by the WHO, it is prevalent in France and Eastern Europe.

The experts warned the committee that because CCHF infections had not previously been anticipated, it was possible that they might go undetected by NHS clinicians.

The committee was informed by Prof. James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, that it was "highly likely" that CCHF will eventually make its way to the UK. 

The report also noted that it is still challenging to predict which viruses will emerge and when.

Researchers alert the UK to Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever

"Some tick-borne infections, such as CCHF, are highly probable to spread in the UK through our ticks at some point," he added.

The researchers also pointed out that the UK's warmer climate will help spread other diseases including Zika, break bone fever, and the fatal Rift Valley fever.

According to Professor Bryan Charleston, director of the Pirbright Institute, there is a "slow march north" of illnesses.

Climate change, according to Professor Sir Peter Horby, Director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University, is redrawing the geographic distribution of several diseases.

Dengue, a disease that is often hyperendemic in South America and South East Asia, has migrated north and is now being transmitted in the Mediterranean, he stated.

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