High consequence infectious disease: country specific risk

How to use this guidance

The information presented below is provided for health professionals wishing to determine if there is a known HCID risk in any particular country. It will be updated as new information arises.

The information is intended as a guide only. For any HCID, the risk will be greatest in countries that have reported laboratory-confirmed, locally acquired human cases, particularly recent cases. For countries where the only supporting evidence of an HCID is human serology data (which is often generated by studies of asymptomatic populations), the true risk may be lower and the data should be interpreted with caution.

HCID risk assessments should also consider other factors, including exposure histories, activities undertaken whilst travelling, and the areas visited within a country.

For any particular country, the absence of previously reported HCID cases does not mean that locally acquired HCIDs cannot occur in that country in the future, if the necessary transmission factors are present; examples of first-ever reports include Ebola in Guinea (reported 2014), CCHF in Spain (reported 2017), and SFTS in Vietnam and Taiwan (reported 2019).

Healthcare professionals wishing to discuss a possible HCID case should contact a local infection specialist (such as a consultant in infectious diseases, microbiology or virology) in the first instance.

Infection specialists should contact the Imported Fever Service about suspected HCID cases, as appropriate, and refer to the relevant UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) guidance (for which links are provided in the tables below).

Table Key

a) cases or serological data reported prior to 1990

b) even though there is a lack of available data, Balkan countries are presumed to be endemic for CCHF

c) unknown date

Countries A to D

Countries E to H

Countries I to L

Countries M to P

Countries Q to T

Countries U to Z