By NewsDesk  @bactiman63

In a follow-up on Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in South Africa this year, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported the third confirmed human case in the country in 2022.

South Africa/CIA

The latest case, a 36-year-old man from the Cape Winelands District fell ill on 8 October 2022 and was taken to a local hospital on 12 October 2022 with symptoms of fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting,
abdominal pain, muscle pain, coughing and malaise.

Later symptoms included overt bleeding, namely purpura, ecchymosis, petechiae, melaena stool and disseminated intravascular coagulation. The patient also had liver failure.

The patient works in an abattoir in the Cape Winelands district, and given the occupational risk and clinical picture, he was clinically diagnosed with CCHF on 17 October 2022 and laboratory confirmed the next day.

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The patient is currently recovering. The abattoir worker most likely became infected after coming into
contact with infected animal blood and tissues during sheep slaughter.

The three confirmed cases this year were reported in Western Cape Province (n=2) and Eastern Cape Province (n=1).