SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Sulaimani authorities on Monday launched a cleaning and disinfection campaign to prevent the spread of the deadly Crimean-Congo fever disease.
Professional cleaning teams wearing protective masks and clothes launched a cleaning and disinfection campaign inside the meat markets in the local Bazaar.
The teams were focused on sanitizing the interior surfaces of the meat market, including the butcher shops as people usually catch the disease through contact with the blood of infected animals.
“The disease has not yet reached Sulaimani, and the sanitization campaign is only a protective measure to protect the people’s health,” said Rekan Jamal, the head of the health committee in the local government.
“The sanitization campaign will stretch to every single place that holds animals,” Jamal said.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever causes severe hemorrhaging. The fever has a fatality rate of between 10 and 40 percent in all cases.
The disease has been endemic to Iraq since 1979, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). At times, small outbreaks have been reported, with the last outbreak happening in 2022 summer.
Currently, Sulaimani authorities tightened preventive measures to curb the spread of a new wave of the Crimean-Congo fever outbreak as several cases have been recorded in the Kurdistan Region.
