Four more test positive for Congo Fever

A young Resident Medical officer of ATH died of the disease a few days back.

ABBOTABAD: Four more people have been diagnosed with Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) at Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad.

Reports received from National Institute of Health (NIH) on Tuesday confirmed the patients were suffering from Congo fever. Ironically, all four patients - Sultan Shah, Shah Zaman, Aurangezeb and Sher Gul - were discharged few days ago and the hospital is unaware of their whereabouts.

Talking to the Express Tribune, Deputy Medical Superintendent (DMS) Dr Junaid said the hospital had sent eight blood samples to National Institute of Health, out of which four were tested positive for CCHF.

He said the four patients had been admitted in medical ward ‘A’ of Ayub Medical Complex Hospital but were discharged a few days ago because “their condition did not seem serious”.

The hospital administration does not have addresses of the patients, however, he said that two of them belonged to Mansehra, one was from village Rajoya in Havalian, while whereabouts of the fourth patient are unknown.

Source inside the hospital said the pathology department was responsible for maintaining records of these patients. They said a young Resident Medical officer (RMO) of ATH, Dr Husnain Shah, died of the disease a few days back.

Since Dr Shah’s death, hospital received 16 patients suspected of the CCHF and their blood samples were sent to NIH for tests.

All these patients were admitted in the hospital’s medical ward A and later discharged, sources said.

ATH administration has constituted a team including DMS Dr Junaid, Professor Dr Shamim Anwar and Professor Dr Javed, who, after holding meeting with World Health Organisation representative, have established quarantine measures for Congo fever patients in ATH and arranged 500 protective kits.

“Beside lab procedures, early identification of the disease is very important,” said Dr Athar Lodhi, Director IPP and Planning at ATH.

The quarantine area to treat such patients is established next to the IPP ward, which
is putting other patients at risk.

“I have requested chief executive of the hospital to shift the quarantine to a safer location,” he added.

It is worth mentioning that there is no virologist or specialist of infectious disease in the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2010.