Haemorrhage fever leaves five dead in Karachi

KARACHI—Outbreak of dengue, commonly known as Congo fever, has killed at least five people and infected 40 others in Pakistan’s largest city as the government battles to prevent it from taking on epidemic proportions.
“Five patients suspected of having contracted Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) are dead, including a lady doctor, while 40 others are infected and are under observation in hospitals,” a spokesman of the health ministry told IANS. The spokesperson said that hospitals in this southern Pakistan port city had been put on alert and all patients coming to hospitals were being “carefully tested” for CCHF. The vector of the dangerous dengue fever is the Aedes Egyptii mosquito that usually bites during the day. Earlier, at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad a Somalian national was suspected of having the disease and was being kept under observation till he left for his country Oct 13. The spokesperson said that the government had sent blood samples of five patients from Congo to laboratories in South Africa for tests.
“We are awaiting test results of these samples sent to the National Institute of Virology, South Africa, on Sunday (Nov 26). The report is likely to arrive in a week’s time,” said the spokesman. Health Minister Nisar Khan held meetings with health authorities in Karachi on how to deal with the situation, with experts warning of a possible epidemic. According to the health minister, the situation was under control though the Sindh health department has been asked to screen livestock to check the “epidemic.” The provincial administration has also been requested to spray chemicals to destroy all kinds of vector-born diseases. Khan, in a statement, appealed to the people not to panic as the disease early warning system was fully operational at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, which, in close liaison with the provincial health department, was also monitoring the entire situation.
The minister also assured that there were enough stocks in the country of oral anti-virals like Ribavirin, which was administered in such cases and supplies of Ribavirin injections were being imported on an urgent basis. The staff of the provincial malaria control programme has been directed to immediately carry out spraying in the city to kill mosquitoes. The National Institute of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organisation is preparing a long-term plan to control similar outbreaks in future.—Agencies