19-year-old Congo fever’s second victim this year

KARACHI: The dreaded Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) claimed the second life of the year in Karachi on Tuesday, when a teenaged resident of the Korangi Industrial Area died at the Jinnah Hospital due to complications of the lethal tick-borne disease.

“Nineteen-year-old Moiz was brought to the JPMC on Sunday morning from the Korangi Industrial Area with a high-grade fever, rashes on his body and bleeding from the nose and the mouth. He was admitted to the isolation ward and kept in intensive care, where he died on Tuesday morning,” JPMC Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali told The News.

Moiz is the second victim of the CCHF in the metropolis. Last month a 36-year-old resident of Lyari, Sadiq Ali, had died at the Liaquat National Hospital due to complications of the viral disease.

As many as four people — a female resident of Mianwali, a young man in Multan and two men of Karachi — have died in the country due to the CCHF this year, said health officials, adding that those dealing with cattle and livestock, including farmers and butchers, are at a greater risk of contracting the fatal disease. Dr Seemin said the teenager, Moiz, was a worker at a tannery in the Korangi Industrial Area, where labourers come into contact with the hides of cattle and other animals for processing, adding that he might have contracted the disease from a tick present on any hide brought to the tannery for processing.