NIH confirms Congo virus in three K-P residents

Officials said that a sixth man is still under treatment at LRH

PESHAWAR: Of the five people from Bubbal Khail village who died last week of a mysterious disease, three of them were suffering from Congo virus, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health officials confirmed on Tuesday.

The cause of death for others from the district has yet to be ascertained.

The K-P health department said that three people were carrying a strain of the Congo virus. Of those who died, two were from Lakki Marwat while one was from Karak.

“The patient still being treated for the virus is not from the same family, but yes, the cases were reported on the same day from both the districts,” Dr Shaheen Afridi, additional director of the health department, told The Express Tribune.

Dr Afridi added that all the three patients were being provided with medical assistance and described their condition as satisfactory. However, he said that the patients were being kept in isolation to protect others from being infected by the virus.

According to the officials, as many as six people had fallen sick after they slaughtered a cow in the Bubbal Khail village on May 30 and distributed the meat among 180 people. Four of them contracted the virus and died that day. The remaining two were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar for treatment.

Of these, one of them died while receiving treatment while the other survived after doctors started treating him for the Congo virus.

Officials stated that the man who died at LRH had done so within two of hours of being brought to the hospital. They had collected samples from him and another patient who was brought with him from the same area. The samples were sent to the laboratory of the National Institute of Health in Islamabad.

When asked about the how the four others who had died [who could not make it to the hospital], the officials stated that since they could not obtain samples from them, it was difficult to say if the death was caused by the Congo virus but they suspected the cause was the same.

“The deceased patient could not survive long enough to undergo thorough diagnostics but the other patient who was rushed to LRH, admitted and tested positive for carrying the virus,” Dr Afridi said. A team of doctors who visited the village discovered that only those who were involved in the slaughter or skinning of the cow were reportedly infected.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2017.