چکیده (انگلیسی):

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral disease transmitted to humans by bite of
infected ticks or by direct contact with blood or tissues of viremic patients or livestock. The
present cross-sectional meta-analysis study is based on previous data which have shown that
the human CCHFV seroprevalence in specific regions of Greece is high (N5%). In the absence
of human cases, it has been suggested that a non- or low-pathogenic strain is circulating in
the country causing asymptomatic infections. A spatial cluster analysis was performed to assess
the geographical variations in CCHFV seropositivity and to identify the risk factors. The overall
CCHFV seroprevalence is 3.8%, with significant rate difference between the eastern and western
part of the country. Apart the risk factors described in previous studies (age, sex, tick bite,
agropastoral activities), the altitude, the land cover type and the transitional woodland/shrub
land per person, as well as the number of livestock per person, and specifically the number
of goats, sheep and cattle per person, were shown to affect significantly the seroprevalence.
Tick studies are needed to identify the circulating strains and unravel the mystery of CCHF epidemiology
in Greece.
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of World Federation of Parasitologists. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).