Congo fever: Livestock dept initiates awareness campaign

Camps to check animals set up; locals urged to wear gloves while handling livestock

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of Livestock & Dairy Development started an awareness campaign to curb the outbreak of fatal Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) right before Eidul Azha. The disease caused by Congo virus can be transferred from infected animals to human beings through tick bites and contact with animals’ blood or bodily secretions.

Modus operandi

While talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Syed Masoom and Livestock and Dairy Development Peshawar District Director said the department has taken measures to stop the outbreak of disease prior to Eidul Azha.

According to him livestock department has set up seven camps in various localities of Peshawar—Kaka Mandai, Naguman, Larama, Palosai, two on Ring Road and one at a veterinary hospital in the city—to check animals for the disease. The camps will provide services to workers affiliated with livestock businesses.

Masoom said doctors have been deployed in 45 veterinary centres to check animals for the disease. “Pamphlets have also been distributed among locals to create awareness about the issue.”

He said the department had started fumigating the district against the disease and also urged locals to wear gloves before coming into contact with sacrificial animals. “We are making every possible effort to control the outbreak of Congo virus,” the doctor added.

He said there were no clear symptoms in animals that were infected with the virus but symptoms of the virus in human beings were very clear. “People infected with the virus have high fever, dizziness, itching eyes, headaches, joint and muscles aches, red blotches on their bodies and bleeding nose,” he maintained.

Locals urged the government to restrict animals to designated places to avoid the epidemic of the disease and keep the city clean.

Abdul Saboor, a resident of Hayatabad told The Express Tribune traders roamed around the city to sell sacrificial animals which could expose people to the disease. “The sacrificial animals that are brought to Peshawar from other cities should also be checked for Congo virus,” Saboor added.

Understanding the gravity

The virus has claimed the lives of dozens of people across the country.

According to an official of Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), at least six cases of CCHF were reported to the facility from across the province this year.  Out of these, three were tested positive for the virus and two patients succumbed to the disease.

At least 43 suspected cases of Congo virus were reported to HMC in 2015. “Out of the 43 suspected cases, 29 patients were Afghan citizens,” the official requesting anonymity said. “At least 14 were tested positive for the virus out of which only one person survived.”

The disease first surfaced in Crimea in 1944 and is endemic in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia today. According to World Health Organization fact sheet, there is no vaccine available for either people or animals.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2016.