JPMC admits elderly Congo fever patient from Quetta

Officials at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) said on Tuesday that they have admitted another Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever patient into the health facility, adding that the elderly man from Balochistan is in critical condition.

“Dost Muhammad, 65, from Quetta was brought to a private hospital in critical condition from where he was shifted to the JPMC for treatment,” Dr Seemin Jamali, the hospital’s executive director, told The News. “We sent his blood samples for analysis, and the lab test confirmed that he has contracted the tick-borne viral infection.”

So far this year Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever has claimed seven lives in the city, three of whom breathed their last at the Jinnah Hospital while the others at private health facilities.

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever is a tick-borne, potentially lethal, viral disease with a mortality rate of 30 per cent to 40 per cent and usually affecting people who come into contact with livestock and other animals.

Dr Seemin said they had moved the patient to the isolation ward where he was treated with symptomatic and anti-viral drugs, but the patient’s condition was critical due to haemorrhage and low count of platelets.

Most Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever patients are brought to Karachi from various areas of Balochistan with a history of dealing with cattle, said health officials, adding that due to lack of proper health facilities, majority of these patients are brought to the city for treatment.

Despite the emergence of dozens of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever cases annually in Pakistan, only two health facilities, namely the National Institute of Health in Islamabad and the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, have the facility to diagnose this illness.