Sequencing and phylogenetic characterisation of a fatal Crimean – Congo haemorrhagic fever case imported into the United Kingdom, October 2012

A patient with fever, and haemorrhagic symptoms was admitted to a hospital in Glasgow on 2 October 2012. Since he had returned from Afghanistan, serum samples were sent for diagnosis at the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory, where a real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR diagnosis of Crimean – Congo haemorrhagic fever was made within 3hrs after receipt of the sample. Hereafter the patient was transferred to a high-security infectious diseases unit in London but died on 6 October.