Daily Times

The report about the discovery of a Congo virus patient in Bahawalpur is a wake-up call to the health authorities. They must be on their guard against an epidemic caused by the deadly virus. Once human-to-human transmission of the virus gets under way, it could spread like a bush fire. An Elite Force official has been quarantined at the Bahawal Victoria Hospital in Bahawalpur after he tested positive for a Congo virus infection.

The positive report is stated to have caused alarm among the hospital staff and panic among other patients and their attendants. Their concerns are not entirely out of place considering a surgeon who came into close contact with a Congo virus patient in 2016 contracted the virus and died. The hospital management says they have got tested all their staff and the relatives of the patient, and thankfully, they have tested negative for the Congo virus and the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever. The patient is also showing early signs of recovery from the virus, which has a high mortality rate. This is the second case of a Congo virus infection in Pakistan this year. Earlier, a woman diagnosed with the CCHF died in Karachi in February.

Over the years, Congo virus has claimed several lives in Pakistan. In 2018, 16 people died of the virus in Karachi alone. The number of the infected people was 41. The virus is a tick-borne viral disease that is transmitted to humans mainly from animals, wild as well as domestic. This means that people exposed to animals in rural areas are more vulnerable to the threat. Given the large number of people associated with raising livestock, Pakistan will always be at risk for the deadly virus. The disease is transmitted from human-to-human only in case of close contact with organs, blood or other secretions and bodily fluids of the infected person. According to the Aga Khan University Hospital, its symptoms include high grade fever, stomach pain, diarrohea, muscle aches, headache, sleeplessness, abdominal pain, jaundice, nose bleed and uncontrolled bleeding.

Come Eidul Azha season, only about three months away, sacrificial animals will be brought to large cities in droves. That is when the risk of the spread of the CCHF is particularly high. The previous government had started the practice of a compulsory spray of animals at entrances to the cities. Hopefully, the incumbent government would extend the programme to rural points so that those in rural areas, where more people are in regular contact with cattle, are also protected from the virus. The most important thing, however, is the initiation of bio-safety measures in hospitals. Doctors and paramedics must follow infection-control procedures to stop infections at the earliest. *