A DEADLY virus that kills 30 percent of those infected by causing them to bleed from their eyes has reached Spain after a man was hospitalized last week.
The man was diagnosed with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) after being bitten by a tick in the city of Leon, northwest Spain.
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The unnamed patient was hospitalized in Leon last week before being flown to another hospital by the Defense Ministry on Thursday.
The Spanish authorities said that he “remains in a stable condition, despite the clinical severity that this pathology implies”.
According to the WHO, the mortality rate for CCHF is 30 percent.
Symptoms include fever, pain, dizziness, mood swings, confusion, and bleeding, particularly around the eyes and skin.
Signs of infection often come on suddenly, and many of those who die from the virus die within two weeks of diagnosis.
It was first discovered in Crimea in 1944 and is endemic to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans.
Cases are rare in northern Europe, with only 3 cases in Spain since 2011.
In March, a British woman was diagnosed with CCHF, the fourth case in the UK since 2012.
She was treated at the Royal Free in London.
At that time Dr. Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency’s senior medical adviser. said the virus “does not spread easily between people and the overall risk to the public is very low.”
The virus is usually carried by ticks and livestock, and transmitted to humans through bites.
It can be transmitted between people through infected blood or body fluids.
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Deadly eye-bleeding virus that kills up to a third of all patients reaches Spain after a man was hospitalized
