How Worried Should You Be About A Disease You've Never Heard Of?
Earlier this spring, there were scary stories in the Saudi media about Alkhurma hemorrhagic fever. To find out what was really going on, we interviewed a specialist on tick-borne viruses.
Earlier this spring, Saudi Arabia was put on high alert as the media reported an outbreak of Alkhurma hemorrhagic fever.
Goats and Soda jumped to cover the story. Hemorrhagic fevers, which include Ebola, are a frightening group of illnesses, and rightly so, for their ability to sometimes cause bleeding — from the eyes, nose, ears and other body parts.
But it turned out there actually had not been an outbreak of Alkhurma — a rare disease that has been detected only in Saudi Arabia and parts of northeastern Africa, including Egypt.
In an email to NPR, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health said
