Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is a reality and a threat in Spain, as argued by the spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (Seimc), José Miguel Cisneros. «It should no longer be considered something exotic or distant; the virus is endemic. Therefore, it should be included in the differential diagnosis of patients during the warm months," explains this expert. To date, four cases have been recorded, one of them died in June.
Currently, a 71-year-old man who was visiting the province of Salamanca tested positive for this infection and was transferred to the Gómez Ulla Hospital in Madrid, where he remains isolated. The Junta de Castilla y León, through the General Directorate of Public Health, notified the third case of 2026 last Thursday and has implemented the necessary protocols to control the outbreak. "Because the body fluids of infected patients are highly contagious, people with the infection must be admitted to High Level Isolation Units (UAAN) to be cared for by professionals with special protective equipment," explains Cisneros.
In this way, the criteria established to deal with this type of infections are followed, contemplated in the National Plan for Prevention, Surveillance and Control of Tick-Transmitted Diseases (PLAN), which was launched two years ago, when four cases were added throughout the country. In the Castilian-Leonese community, the contacts of the affected person have been identified to indicate the follow-up to be carried out. The protocol consists of periodically monitoring your body temperature and communicating any change in your health status to your reference epidemiologist.
"Although there are mild and self-limiting forms that present with fever and malaise, the disease can progress to severe hemorrhagic manifestations that lead to a mortality of between 20% and 40%," explains Cisneros, adding that "any person, even someone young and healthy, can develop a serious infection."
Most infections by the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus occur asymptomatically and, when symptoms develop, they usually present as a kind of flu and only "a small percentage, up to 30%, develop hemorrhagic fever, which has a high probability of complications," Cisneros recalls.
Avoiding the bite "is the only thing that ensures we avoid the infection" and, when it is suspected and known, what should lead us to the consultation is the appearance of fever, he emphasizes. "Currently there is no medical treatment with proven efficacy through clinical trials (only experimental therapies are used), nor is there a vaccine available," warns the spokesperson for the scientific society.
Comprehensive surveillance of cases
Since the beginning of this year, and as of August 13, only Spain has reported cases of local transmission (four cases, confirmed by the Ministry of Health) of this infection in Europe, as reported by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). In the last decade, registered indigenous cases have been growing.
In the global report carried out by the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network of the Carlos III Health Institute (Renave, ISCIII), the entire evolution of the infection is recorded, which already totals 23 cases to date. All infections required hospital admission and six (all of them older men between 51 and 80 years old) died due to hemorrhagic complications.
As Cisneros, who is also the director of the Infectious Diseases, Microbiology and Preventive Medicine unit at the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, explains, transmission is limited to the months of highest temperatures: between April and August, with maximums in July (7) and June (5). "In most cases, the most probable place of exposure has been the province of Salamanca (9)," says Cisneros.
However, the expert emphasizes that "the vector that transmits the virus, the tick, specifically the species Hyalomma lusitanicum, is distributed throughout almost the entire Iberian Peninsula, which means that it is possible to contract the infection in practically any part of the territory."
