3rd International Conference on Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever

Six years after its 2^nd edition, the 3^rd International Conference on Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever was held in Thessaloniki, Greece, from September 19-21, 2023.

The conference, sponsored by ERINHA, brought together around 100 participants including international public health professionals, clinicians, ecologists and laboratory researchers, as well as representatives from international bodies such as WHO.

Meeting sessions covered the epidemiology of CCHF in humans; ticks and virus-tick interactions; wild and domestic animal hosts; molecular virology; pathogenesis and animal models; clinical aspects and diagnosis; immune response and therapeutics; and disease prevention in humans. The concluding session focused on WHO prevention and control strategies and innovations against CCHF outbreaks.

CCHF is a viral haemorrhagic fever usually transmitted by ticks. Its outbreaks constitute a threat to public health services as the virus can lead to epidemics, has a high case fatality ratio (10–40%), and is difficult to prevent and treat. The causative agent, CCHFV is found across a wide geographic area, circulating in many countries of southern Europe, Africa and Asia.

CCHF is part of the WHO R&D Blueprint as well as ERINHA’s Research Portfolio and the ERINHA-led ISIDORe project priority pathogen list. In the framework of the ISIDORe project, ERINHA provides free access to its high-containment facilities to advance research on CCHF. A presentation about ERINHA’s contribution to research into CCHFV and other high-consequence pathogens was provided during the conference.

The report of the 3^rd IC CCHF will be published soon.