“In Iraq, the pace of health crises is accelerating in an unprecedented way”, worries the pan-Arab site Raceef22. After the coronavirus pandemic, the country is experiencing a record number of cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, especially in the poor countryside of the south of the country.
Transmitted by ticks or by contact with farm animals infected with this virus, this disease causes outbreaks of severe viral haemorrhagic fever, with a fatality rate of 10 to 40%, describes the WHO. This explains why cattle breeders and slaughterhouse workers are the most affected people. This virus is particularly endemic in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia. For the moment, there is no vaccine: neither for humans, nor for animals.
According to the latest figures, provided on Tuesday May 31 by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, 120 cases of contamination have been recorded since June 2021. Twenty of them have died. The curve has been rising since January, but more particularly in the very last few weeks.
In question, according to some experts, the non-organization of spraying campaigns over the past two years on animals due to the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus and, more broadly, global warming, which has favored the proliferation of ticks.
One more “disaster”
A few days ago, the authorities set up a crisis unit responsible for implementing spraying campaigns in slaughterhouses and markets and raising awareness among the population. A “late reaction”, judges the Iraqi journalist, author of the article on the pan-Arab site.
In recent days, writes Race22, “the spread of the disease in Iraq has caused a state of panic among the citizens”. A fear that increases day by day as Eid Al-Adha – “the festival of sacrifice” in Arabic – approaches, the biggest Muslim celebration of the year, scheduled for next July and during which it is tradition to cut the throat of an animal for the meal.
This health crisis risks having economic consequences, fears a researcher quoted by Race22, because it jeopardizes the entire livestock sector, very present in rural areas, the most disadvantaged regions of the country.
Another crisis, in addition to those, political, economic and climatic, already underway in Iraq, deplores the site:
“According to these data, Iraq stands on the brink of a new social catastrophe, threatening the lives of its citizens, […] which is added to the pile of successive catastrophes in the face of which the citizen is left alone, facing his destiny.”