Fresh warning of deadly new virus surfaces

Amid worldwide efforts to prepare for the next possible pandemic, a new warning has surfaced about a 'deadly' new virus that kills nearly every second patient.

The warning, about the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), came from scientists in the UK, news agency IANS said on June 15 citing reports by the Mirror.

The arrival of this killer virus has become "highly likely" due to climate change, the report said. The disease caused by the virus has been found in eastern Europe and now France.


This virus is on WHO's list of "priority" diseases. The mortality rate of CCHF is up to 40 per cent, according to WHO. The virus, which spreads by ticks or animal tissue, is difficult to prevent or treat, it says.

There may already have been cases in the UK but doctors in the NHS may have missed them because such an occurrence was highly unexpected till now.

Prof James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, told the committee that it was "highly likely" that CCHF would reach the UK at some point but it is difficult to know which viruses will arrive and when.

Tick-borne infections like Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever are highly likely to spread in the UK at some point, the report quoted him as saying.

According to scientists, UK's warmer weather can also cause other diseases including Rift Valley fever, Zika, and abreakbone' fever to spread.

According to Professor Bryan Charleston, Director of the Pirbright Institute, there is a "slow march north" of diseases happening.

Climate change was mixing up the map of where to find certain illnesses, said Professor Sir Peter Horby, Director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University.