Abstract
BackgroundCrimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne viral zoonotic disease that has been reported in almost all geographic regions in Pakistan. The aim of this study was to identify spatial clusters of human cases of CCHF reported in country.MethodsKulldorff’s spatial scan statisitc, Anselin’s Local Moran’s I and Getis Ord Gi* tests were applied on data (i.e. number of laboratory confirmed cases reported from each district during year 2013).FindingsThe analyses revealed a large multi-district cluster of high CCHF incidence in the uplands of Balochistan province near it border with Afghanistan. The cluster comprised the following districts: Qilla Abdullah; Qilla Saifullah; Loralai, Quetta, Sibi, Chagai, and Mastung. Another cluster was detected in Punjab and included Rawalpindi district and a part of Islamabad.ConclusionWe provide empirical evidence of spatial clustering of human CCHF cases in the country. The districts in the clusters should be given priority in surveillance, control programs, and further research.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2049-9957-4-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an arboviral zoonotic infection with potential for human-tohuman transmission
We provide empirical evidence of spatial clustering of human Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) cases in the country
Information about the occurrence of the disease was extracted from the Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin(s) jointly published by the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad and the country office of the World Health Organization (WHO), Pakistan
Summary
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an arboviral zoonotic infection with potential for human-tohuman transmission. The disease is widely distributed across Africa, Asia, and Europe. It is generally asymptomatic in infected animals (usually domestic livestock), but highly fatal in humans with a 10 to 50% case fatality [1]. The causative virus of CCHF is a member of the genus Nairovirus in the family Bunyaviridae. It is an enveloped virus containing negative-sense; singlestranded RNA composed of three segments. Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne viral zoonotic disease that has been reported in almost all geographic regions in Pakistan. Methods: Kulldorff’s spatial scan statisitc, Anselin’s Local Moran’s I and Getis Ord Gi* tests were applied on data (i.e. number of laboratory confirmed cases reported from each district during year 2013)
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