WHO despatches medical team to investigate Congo fever

A three-member medical team has been despatched to Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi to oversee the health situation after reports of some 40 suspected cases of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) over the last two months. At least two people suspected of having contracted CCHF, including one female doctor, died last week, according to health officials. "It’s not a very alarming situation yet, but we are carefully monitoring the cases as so far nothing is confirmed about the illness. We are awaiting laboratory results from South Africa expected in the next couple of days to ascertain whether it is CCHF or any other disorder," Dr Ghulam Nabi Kazi, provincial head of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Sindh chapter, said in the capital Islamabad on Tuesday. Health authorities on Sunday sent blood samples from the five suspected CCHF patients to the National Institute of Virology in South Africa for further tests to ascertain the disease. CCHF is one of the severest human viral diseases. Symptoms include headaches, muscular pain, vomiting, massive bleeding through the nose, mouth and ears and internal organs. According to WHO officials, 200 cases of CCHF have been reported since the first case appeared in 1976, out of which some 63 people had died of the disease. In a preventive move, health authorities have put all hospitals in Karachi on high alert. Those affected may be suffering from Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, the symptoms of which are similar to that of CCHF, according to public health experts at the National Institute for Health (NIH) in Islamabad. The provincial health authorities in Sindh have also been asked to run a campaign to educate people about the risk of CCHF, with a special focus on butchers and those in close contact with animals. CCHF is found in many parts of Africa, the Middle East and even warmer parts of the former Soviet Union. It is spread by ticks.