Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 57, 55-57, 2004

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Short Communication

Possible Horizontal Transmission of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus from a Mother to Her Child

Masayuki Saijo, Qing Tang¹, Bawudong Shimayi², Lei Han¹, Yuzhen Zhang³, Muer Asiguma³, Dong Tianshu³, Akihiko Maeda, Ichiro Kurane and Shigeru Morikawa*

Special Pathogens Laboratory, Department of Virology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo 208-0011, Japan, ¹Second Division of Viral Hemorrhagic Fever, Institute of Infectious Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 102206, ²Bachu County Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region and ³Bachu People's Hospital, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, P. R. China

(Received December 5, 2003. Accepted February 9, 2004)

*Corresponding author: Mailing address: Special Pathogens Laboratory, Department of Virology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Gakuen 4-7-1, Musashimurayama, Tokyo 208-0011, Japan. Tel: +81-42-561-0771 (ext. 791), Fax: +81-42-561-2039, E-mail: morikawa@nih.go.jp

SUMMARY: The case of a child with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) presumably infected with CCHF virus from her 27-year-old mother is described. The mother with CCHF was treated with ribavirin and did not present with any symptoms of obvious hemorrhage. The child developed fever on the 5th day after the mother's onset. The partial virus genome was amplified by RT-PCR, and nested PCR from the child and the genome sequence were identical to that from the mother, indicating possible transmission of the virus from mother to child. This case indicates the importance of preventive measures for in-house outbreaks of CCHF.

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