Where is the Congo virus coming from?

KARACHI: With a dengue patient diagnosed with the deadly Congo virus in Karachi on Thursday, health experts are looking at different possibilities to explain how the virus is making its way into the city.

“There are at least two hypotheses to explain where the virus is originating,” said Dr Bushra Jamil, the chairperson of the Infection Control Committee and an associate professor of medicine, pathology and microbiology. “It might be that the animals that are brought to the city from areas such as Kashmir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan carry the virus.

The other explanation could be that health workers, who treat infected patients, end up becoming carriers and spread the virus while travelling to different places.”

On an average, four people infected with the Congo virus are admitted to the Aga Khan Hospital in a year, and at least two of them, if not all, hail from Balochistan, she said.

Part of the problem could be that Karachi attracts people from all over the country for employment and business prospects. “Of course, there are some indigenous cases as well and you need to keep in mind that not everyone is susceptible to the virus,” said Dr Jamil.

She proposed setting up automated slaughter houses, which will not only provide a sanitary environment, but protection for butchers against such infections as well. Dr Shakeel Aamir Mullick, additional medical superintendent at Sindh Hospital, said that coming into contact with contaminated leather goods can also pass on the highly contagious virus.

Lack of measures at airport

The Jinnah International Airport has no real measures in place to detect the Congo virus among passengers. The airport currently has a scanner which is primarily meant for people travelling from the yellow fever endemic zone, but there’s nothing for the Congo virus.

“Preventative measures to control the entry of infected people into the city have not been given due diligence,” said Sindh Health Secretary Hashim Zaidi.

Dr Anwarul Haque, Civil Aviation Authority’s assistant health officer at the Jinnah airport, says they have not received any directions from the federal government about measures to detect infected passengers. “In any case, this is not our work. It is the World Health Organisation’s job. They spoke about the virus outbreak in the first place,” he told The Express Tribune.

Haque said that this year alone, at least 50 people arrived in the city from endemic areas (suspected of yellow fever endemic zone). However, not a single one of them tested positive for the virus.

“There is nothing much we can do. The virus has not spread through human contact so it does not make sense to take measures at the airport,” said Sindh Special Secretary Public Health Dr Abdul Majid, adding, “Besides that, there is no danger from the meat once it is cooked at a temperature of 100 degrees Centigrade.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2010.