Jinnah Hospital gets year’s fourth Congo virus case

A young man tested positive for the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) on Tuesday and is undergoing treatment in an isolation ward of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

JPMC Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali said Waqas Ansar works as a rider for a motor company and is a resident of the Lines Area neighbourhood. She said that this is the fourth case of the CCHF.

“The patient had interaction with sacrificial animals and was brought in with a fever and bleeding from the mouth and other parts of the body.” Dr Seemin said that a person infected with the highly contagious tick-borne disease had succumbed to complications arising from the CCHF at the JPMC this January.

The CCHF is a lethal viral infection that is transmitted to humans from animals, especially cattle and livestock. Patients are kept in isolation wards to prevent other patients, doctors, nurses and paramedics from contracting the disease.