India, Sept. 30 -- In 2011, nearly a decade after it was first detected in Gujarat, two people died from Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Rajasthan's Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. The state government has sent blood samples of 134 other people to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune for examination. But the disease, which is transmitted either through the bite of a tick, or contact with blood or tissues of infected animals or humans, and has a high fatality rate (from 5% to 80%), underscores the belief that India is fast becoming a hotspot for emerging illnesses. The last decade has seen infectious diseases such as Nipah, Avian influenza, pandemic influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, and chikungunya viru...