ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kirkuk Health Directorate confirmed on Saturday that a man has died of complications from Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, marking the first death due to the tick-borne disease in the province this year.

The 29-year-old man was believed to have had “interactions with animals” in Taza town in southern Kirkuk, according to Dr. Sabah Namiq, the head of the public health section at the Directorate, told Kurdistan 24.