2023-11-08 21:31:00
French researchers have for the first time demonstrated the presence of the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus in ticks analyzed in the Eastern Pyrenees. At the moment, no human cases have been detected.
Present on the WHO list of priority diseases, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (or CCHF) is a pathology caused by a virus (Nairovirus) transmitted by ticks. While the disease is present in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia, it could move closer to Europe, depending on climate change.
Since 2015, the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD) has been monitoring the Hyalomma marginatum tick, one of the vectors of the disease. Thus, every year, in spring, tick collections are carried out in equestrian structures and cattle farms. And for the first time “around a hundred ticks out of more than 2,000, collected in 2022 and especially 2023 in the spring, tested positive for the presence of the FHCC virus”, explains CIRAD.
“Our collections showed that the tick was distributed throughout the Mediterranean, in rather dry open natural habitats such as scrubland or maquis,” indicates Laurence Vial, veterinary acarologist at CIRAD and specialist in ticks. “According to future climate models, the Mediterranean climate is likely to expand, particularly in the Rhône valley, and on the Atlantic coast to the west, it is likely that the range of this species will expand. extend.”
Be careful between April and July
Since the ticks in question do not have any particular appetite for humans, the frequency of their bites to humans is assumed to be low. Furthermore, they are generally more visible than other species of ticks because they are larger. This makes it easier to spot them and remove them before they set and become engorged.
Scientists still call for caution in scrubland, maquis and grazing areas between April and July.
A potentially fatal disease
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the virus can cause “outbreaks of severe viral hemorrhagic fever” like Ebola. The case fatality rate varies from 10 to 40%. After an incubation of a few days, the onset of symptoms is sudden, with fever, myalgia (muscle pain), dizziness, stiffness and pain in the neck, back pain, headache, eye sensitivity. and photophobia (feeling of discomfort caused by light).
If for the moment the pathology is endemic on the African continent or even in the Middle East, its arrival in France could therefore become a reality.
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