Iranian officials have confirmed that three people have died of the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), as the contagious disease makes a return to the country riding on a new heatwave.

Mohammad Reza Shirzadi, an official in Iran�s Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME), said Wednesday that the deaths have been recorded in the western province of Kermanshah, Khorasan Razavi in the northeast and Mazandaran Province in the north.

He added a total of nine people have been diagnosed with the disease since the current Iranian calendar year started on March 21, according to Fars News Agency.

Shirzadi, who serves as the head of the MOHME department of Zoonoses control, said a total of 900 people have been infected with the disease since 2000, of whom 144 people have died, showing a mortality rate of around 15 percent.

The first death incidence from CCHF was recorded on June 20 in Chalous, Mazandaran, where a 29-year-old man reportedly died as a result of the infection.

The head of the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Ghasem Jan Babaei, said later that provincial laboratories have confirmed the CCHF case.

An endemic in Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and Asia, the CCHF is a tick-borne viral disease which can be fatal. Iranian officials blame the illegal import of the livestock, especially through the eastern borders, as the main reason behind the spread of the disease. However, an ongoing heatwave is also to blame, with temperatures rising to above 35 degrees Celsius in some provinces, facilitating the spread of the infectious disease.

By Press TV