Emergence of Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever in Greece

In the summer of 2008, the first case of Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) was observed in Greece. The laboratory diagnosis was established using nested RT-PCR and quantitative real-time RT-PCR. A high viral load and increased levels of cytokines were detected on the third day of illness and the patient died 7 days after the onset of symptoms. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that the Greek CCHF virus strain had high sequence identity with other Balkan CCHF virus strains.