Gruesome ‘nose-bleed fever’ death toll rises to at least 18

“Nose-bleed fever” is as gruesome as it sounds.

More technically called Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, the tick-borne virus has been detected in some 120 people in Iraq since January — including 18 who have died from the disease — health officials have warned, fearing an escalating spread.

The onset of illness causes rapid and severe internal and external bleeding in infected patients, including through the nose, hence its nickname “nose-bleed fever.” Though the virus is hosted in ticks, most individuals pick it up by coming in contact with infected animal blood — usually occurring among those who work with livestock and in slaughterhouses.

The virus is not novel, but it is rare — and apparently spreading at an unprecedented rate throughout Iraq.

Between 10 and 40 percent of cases will die from the disease. Aside from profuse bleeding and potential death, early symptoms include fever, body aches, dizziness, neck pain, headache and sore eyes. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sore throat and brain fog have also been observed in infected patients, according to the World Health Organization.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also allocated 1 billion dinars to spraying livestock farms with pesticides to rid them of host ticks, especially in the southern province of Dhi Qar — the current epicenter of the outbreak where more than half of recent cases have originated. Meanwhile, veterinary clinics have also been issued pesticides, according to Iraq’s agricultural ministry, which urges the country’s citizens to purchase meat only from licensed suppliers.

The rise in cases of nose-bleed fever may be blamed, in part, on the nation’s failure to see through pesticide-spraying campaigns in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Ahmed Zouiten, the WHO’s representative in Iraq.

Seif al-Badr with Iraq’s health ministry told Agence France-Presse earlier this month, “We have not yet reached the stage of an epidemic, but the infections are higher than last year.”

He added, “The procedures adopted by the different authorities are not up to par, particularly with regards to unregulated slaughters.”