Fatal outcome of coinfection of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and malaria.

Abstract

Here, we report a case of a Bulgarian patient with imported falciparum malaria that manifested 6 days after his arrival in Bulgaria, which was complicated by bloody diarrhea 2 days later. Blood smear revealed high parasitemia, with annular forms and gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum. In addition, RNA of the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus was detected in the blood sample by real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and nested RT-PCR. The obtained sequence was found to be clustered within the Europe 1 lineage close to the other Bulgarian strains. Notably, the two infectious diseases may appear with many similar symptoms that are difficult to distinguish.