Although the death of a Seprona police officer was first put down to using a sulphate on his vegetable garden, the real culprit was a tick bite.

It was a month after the death of the officer from Bierzo (Léon), an autopsy report on the 20th of July, confirmed that the cause of death had been an infected tick bite that had caused a fever and the officers consequent death.

The blood infection caused by the Hyalomma can be transmitted from person-to-person through contact with blood from the victim or even secretions, according to the Centro de Coordinación de Alertas y Emergencias Sanitarias.

According to the Ministry of Health the 51-year-old Guardia Civil officer belonging to the corps environmental branch, Seprona, had died in June due to causes unknown but with suspicions that his death could have been caused by a sulphate composition used in gardening (insecticide/weedkiller)

But the family of the victim requested an autopsy, which was where the real cause of death was discovered.

According to the Instituto Nacional de Toxicología y Ciencias Forenses, they had sent a sample of the officers blood to the Centro Nacional de Microbiología on the 20th of July who had detected cuprocalcium sulfate, which had caused hypovolemic shock and a bleeding disorder.

The test results had actually turned up Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) from tick bites but the victim had explained to the hospital doctors that he had been spraying his garden 24 hours before the symptoms began.

In a related incident, a 49-year-old hunter started to notice symptoms on the 12th of July after noting that he had been bitten by a tick. He has been hospitalised but according to a hospital source his conditions is improving favourably.

(News: Bierzo, Leon, Castilla-León)