Haemorrhagic fever claims another life

Pakistan's National Institute for Health (NIH) confirmed to IRIN on Friday that another person had died from Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. "There was a case yesterday where a man was admitted to hospital in the morning and died in the evening. The man was from Lorolai [in Baluchistan], and not an Afghan refugee as some reports have been suggesting," the chief executive of the NIH, Dr Athar Dil, said. CCHF is transmitted by eating and/or handling sheep and goats carrying ticks, but is relatively rare in humans. However, there were recorded cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1998, and again in Pakistan in May this year. Doctors say the disease has been present in the country for a much longer period. "I have stressed that this is endemic, and has been reoccurring since 1976," Dil said. The virus damages arteries, veins and other blood vessels, and causes external bleeding from parts of the body which eventually leads to death. There were a total of 40 CCHF cases between May this year and 5 September and 11 deaths in Pakistan. They were all concentrated in the Baluchistan Province, Dil said. He added that blood samples from previous cases had been sent to laboratories in South Africa, which later confirmed that the deaths had resulted from CCHF, a highly contagious disease. Precautionary measures have been taken at hospitals in Baluchistan. An isolation ward with eight beds and two observation rooms have been set up at the Fatima Jinnah hospital in the provincial capital, Quetta. "We are also using barrier nursing outfits," Dil said. This he explained, required hospital staff treating patients to wear sterilised hairnets, masks, gloves, gowns and overshoes. The WHO in collaboration with the local authorities started a health-awareness campaign in Loralai earlier this year, and has been coordinating closely with the livestock ministry. An epidemic cell comprising the health ministry, the Centre for Disease Control in Baluchistan, WHO and other partners was monitoring the outbreaks. In an earlier IRIN report on fears of diseases spreading in Pakistan's border areas, following a potentially huge new influx of Afghan refugees, Dil said he was concerned that those fleeing possible US attacks on Afghanistan could be bringing in tick-infested cattle. The name Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever derives from its original detection in the Crimea in 1944, when Russian soldiers died from it, and a subsequent outbreak in the Congo in 1956. It is of the same family of acute haemorrhagic fevers as the Ebola virus found in Africa.