JPMC gets two Congo fever patients within a week

At a time when health authorities are dealing with the threat of coronavirus in the country, cases of Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), which is a lethal viral disease, have started surfacing in Sindh, and two people have been diagnosed with the tick-borne viral ailment within a week.

“Today, we had a 37-year-old female patient from Tharparkar, who was bleeding from her nose and mouth. We sent her sample to the lab and the lab test confirmed that she is infected with Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF),” said Dr Seemin Jamali, the executive director of the JPMC, while talking to The News on Wednesday.

It is the second case of the Congo fever in the current year, she said, adding that earlier a 40-year-old person from the Pak Colony of the city had been referred to the JPMC from the Civil Hospital Karachi, who tested positive for the CCHF.

Dr Jamali maintained that the previous patient, who was a butcher by profession, had recovered and been discharged from the hospital, but the new patient, a woman from the Tharparkar district of Sindh, was under treatment in a precarious condition.

Experts say Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever is a tick-borne viral disease whose mortality rate is over 40 per cent, and mostly people who deal with livestock, including butchers and shepherds, contract the disease after coming into contact with infected animals.