Congo fever patient in stable condition at Shifa

ISLAMABAD: Due to the high cost of treating Congo fever, people rarely go to private hospitals for treatment. On September 16, Shifa International, a private hospital in Islamabad, received a patient suffering from this rare and fatal disease. Rasheeda, 35, came to the hospital with a bleeding throat and high fever.

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), also known as Congo fever, is a viral disease that occurs primarily in animals but humans are also susceptible to it.

The disease is indigenous to many African, European and Asian countries. Being a tick-borne disease, majority of the people who contract the virus are involved in the livestock industry, which is the common denominator in Begum’s case. She was infected while bathing a buffalo which had ticks on its skin.

“The treatment of this disease is expensive and majority of the people prefer to get treated in government hospitals instead of private hospitals,” said Azmatullah Qureshi, spokesperson Shifa hospital. “The cost may go beyond Rs0.2 to Rs0.3 million.”

He said the disease has a high mortality rate of 30 per cent but Rasheeda’s condition is stable now.

Rasheeda lives in a village near Attock and is a mother of four children. When she contracted the disease, she was first brought to Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi on September 20. Her blood sample was sent to National Institute of Health, which tested positive for CCHF. Later, when her condition became worse, she was shifted to Shifa hospital in Islamabad.

When asked about the frequency of the infection, Dr Jaleel Kamran of Epidemic Investigation Cell NIH said the disease is not seasonal. “We receive blood samples to be tested for CCHF from various hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad throughout the year,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2010.