Congo fever patient admitted to ASH

Health authorities at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), on Wednesday, confirmed admitting the medical facility’s first patient infected by the Congo virus - raising the number of Congo patients admitted to hospitals in the city to 70. 

Twenty-six-year-old Asif Hanif, resident of Shah Faisal Colony, was first taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) because of a high fever, but owing to a ‘lack of attention from the JPMC administration’, his attendants decided to shift him to ASH on Tuesday where he was diagnosed with CCHF.

ASH’s deputy medical superintendent Dr Hina Hayat said the patient was shifted to a separate room, whereas his blood samples sent to the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) for CCHF tests came back positive.

“He is being given antiviral drugs and supportive treatment and his condition was improving. The external bleeding of the patient has stopped but his condition is still serious,” she informed.

She deplored that despite being a tertiary-care hospital of the metropolis, they did not have a proper isolation ward and protective gear to deal with Congo patients, and that had scared medical and paramedical staff away from patients.

“Due to these shortages, we had requested the patient’s attendants to take him to JPMC since they had an established isolation ward but his family was not willing to do so,” she reportedly claimed.

The total number of Congo patients admitted to hospitals in Karachi this year had reached 69 and seven of them had died, a health official said. The latest death caused by the fever was reported on September 19 by the Aga Khan University Hospital where an inspector of the Airport Security Force, Muhammad Sadiq had succumbed to the disease.