Reports awaited: Suspected Congo patient dies in Abbottabad

Victim was symptomatic; blood tests will confirm infection.

ABBOTABAD:

A suspected Crimean-Congo fever victim died at Combined Military Hospital Abbottabad a few days back, health department and family sources said on Tuesday.

Mansehra Health Executive District Officer Major (retd) Dr Siddique Rehman confirmed the reported death but could not confirm if the deceased had Congo virus as the blood report of the deceased is yet to be received from National Institute of Health (NIH).

Family sources said that Junaid, 14, from Sawan Bandi Peeran in Mansehra District, was taken to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital Mansehra with high fever.

Health authorities referred him to Ayub Medical Complex (AMC) Abbottabad after an initial examination. Health officials said the AMC authorities carried out his tests and provisionally diagnosed him with Congo virus and put him in the isolation ward.

However, the patient’s family later shifted him to CMH Abbottabad, where doctors got his blood tests and he was again provisionally diagnosed as a Congo virus carrier and put on medication. He could not survive and died three days back, still showing symptoms of the disease, said an official.

Referring the clinical findings of the doctors at CMH, Dr Rehman also confirmed that at the time of death, the patient was bleeding from the nose and mouth.

However he said that the symptoms of both dengue and Congo are very similar and patients suffer high fever and bleeding before death in both, so the case of Junaid could be only proven once the blood report was received from NIH.

To a question, he said that all the handlers including his family members, medical practitioners, nurses and other paramedical staff who remained in direct contact with the patient have been put under surveillance for preventive measures.

He said a medical team from the Mansehra Health Department has visited the deceased’s family and found no one with any medical problems.

Dr Rehman said that if the test was declared positive by NIH, blood tests of the medical and paramedical staff at Ayub Medical Complex and King Abdullah Teaching Hospital would be carried subsequently for their safety.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2012.