Iraq News Now

Butchers wrestle with cattle in the Rashid district of Baghdad ahead of Eid al-Adha on Dec. 10, 2008. (Photo credit: Todd Frantom/Wikimedia Commons)

BAGHDAD - Iraq is suffering from an unusually large wave of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a tick-born virus with a fatality rate of up to 40 percent.

Case numbers are significantly higher than in previous years, health officials say. Iraq has now confirmed a total of 98 infections and 18 deaths since the beginning of 2022 — with almost half of this year's cases and one-third of the deaths recorded within the past two weeks, suggesting an escalating pace of spread.