The disease is transmitted through unsanitary butchering of infected livestock, the Health Ministry said. Crimean-Congo fever was first described in the Crimea in 1944. In 1969, it was recognized that the pathogen causing it was the same as that responsible for an illness identified in 1956 in the Congo. Hence the name. It spreads to humans either by tick-bites, or through contact with animal tissues during and immediately after slaughter. The tick that is the Typhoid Mary (or Crimean-Congo Mary) is shown in the photo. The World Health Organization says it is a threat to public health because it can become epidemic and because it is often fatal.