Crimean–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus: Advances in Vaccine Development

Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a severe human disease with mortality rates of up to 30%. The disease is widespread in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The last few years have seen disease emergence in Spain for the first time and disease re-emergence in other regions of the world after periods of inactivity. Factors, such as climate change, movement of infected ticks, animals, and changes in human activity, are likely to broaden endemic foci. There are therefore concerns that CCHF might emerge in currently nonendemic regions. The absence of approved vaccines or therapies heightens these concerns; thus Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is listed by the World Health Organization as a priority organism. However, the current sporadic nature of CCHF cases may call for targeted vaccination of risk groups as opposed to mass vaccinations. CCHF vaccine development has accelerated in recent years, partly because of the discovery of CCHF animal models. In this review, we discuss CCHF risk groups who are most likely to benefit from vaccine development, the merits and demerits of available CCHF animal models, and the various approaches which have been explored for CCHF vaccine development. Lastly, we present concluding remarks and research areas which can be further explored to enhance the available CCHFV vaccine data.