The prevalence of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran: a serologic study

Several cases of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, which is an arboviral disease, have been reported since summer 1999 from different parts of Iran. The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of the infection within Zahedan and Zabel, two districts of the Sistan and Baluchestan province in Iran. Material &

In this seroprevalence study 300 subjects sampled through "probability proportional to size cluster sampling” method from the general population of the Zabol and Zahedan districts. For every subject in the sample a questionnaire was completed and a blood sample was taken. The following variables were measured through questionnaire: age, sex, living environment (rural versus urban), education, job, history of tick bite, history of contact with domestic animals, history of slaughtering, presence of places for keeping livestock at house and history of keeping of livestock in house.

All but just 3 of 300 samples were consent for blood sampling and just 7 out of the 297 serum samples were found to be ELISA positive. In other words the calculated seroprevalence was 0.024 (95%CI= 0.003 - 0.044). History of keeping of domestic animals in house seemed to have significant relationship with seropositivity (P = 0.018).

This pilot study showed that the prevalence of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever in the study population is much lower than expected.