Congo fever claims life of woman from Tharparkar

KARACHI: A 35-year old woman from Tharparkar, who tested positive for Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), Karachi, died due to complications of the viral ailment, officials said on Monday.

“Naimat Bibi, 35, a resident of Tharparpar district who had been tested positive for Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) died on late Sunday night at the intensive care unit of the isolation ward. We have dispatched her body to her native town”, said Dr. Seemin Jamali, the executive director of JPMC while talking to The News on Monday. She was a farmer by profession and had her own herd of goats, adding that probably she contracted the lethal viral disease from her livestock as CCHF is a tick-borne ailment and ticks present on the skin of livestock cause the lethal viral disease. It is the first death due to Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in the country so far and 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 was 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, but the woman 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 handle livestock come into contact with infected animals.