The Yearly Outbreak of Orf Infection of the Hand in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Human orf virus infection of the hand results from contact with infected sheep and goats. Every year during the month of “Hajj” in Saudi Arabia, hundreds of thousands of sheep are slaughtered. A retrospective study showed that over 60% of patients presented to the authors with orf of the hand aquired the infection during slaughtering of the Hajj month, indicating a yearly outbreak of this infection in Saudi Arabia.