Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (C-CHF) re-emerged recently in the Un
ited Arab Emirates. The clinical outcome of 11 cases of viral haemorrh
agic fever patients admitted to hospital between June 1994 and January
1995 is described, Four cases were laboratory confirmed retrospective
ly as C-CHF, the other patients were diagnosed likely to have the same
disease on epidemiological and clinical grounds. In 72.7% of the pati
ents, infection was fatal. Symptoms started 3.5 days before hospitaliz
ation. On admission, 81.8% of patients had high fever, 45.5% were vomi
ting, 63.6% had diarrhoea, 45.5% had haemorrhagic signs, and 18.2% had
throat pain, Fatalities occurred 6.8 days after admission. Survivors
were hospitalized for 9.3 days. Nosocomial transmission was not observ
ed.