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| November 29, 2005 | Tuesday | Shawwal 26, 1426 |
Centre takes preventive measures: Haemorrhagic fever
ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: The federal government is taking preventive measures to control the outbreak of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in Karachi and has sent blood samples of five Congo patients to laboratories in South Africa for tests. “We are awaiting test results of these samples sent to the National Institute of Virology, South Africa, on Sunday. The report is likely to arrive in a week’s time,” an official spokesman at the National Institute of Health told Dawn here on Monday.
Hospitals in Karachi were put on high alert on Friday after five patients suspected of having contracted CCHF were killed, including a lady doctor, while 40 others were infected.
HEALTH MINISTER: Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan has rushed to Karachi where he held detailed meetings with provincial health departments. The minister called an urgent meeting of both federal as well as provincial health departments to review the overall situation in the city.
According to the health minister, the spokesman said, the situation was said to be under control though the Sindh health department had been asked to involve animal husbandry and livestock to check the epidemic. The provincial government has also been requested to spray chemicals to destroy all kinds of vector-born diseases.
Health Minister Nasir Khan has also appealed to the people not to be scared as the disease early warning system was fully operational at the National Institute of Health which in close liaison with the provincial health department was also monitoring the entire situation.
There is enough stock in the country of oral anti-viral like Ribavirin, which was administered in such cases, but supplies of Ribavirin injections had depleted and were being imported on an urgent basis, he said, while quoting the minister.
The health authorities are also closely monitoring the situation in different Karachi hospitals to ascertain whether the affected people are suffering from CCHF or Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, the symptoms of which are similar to that of Congo fever.
Since the vector of dengue fever is a mosquito called Aedes Egyptii, which usually bites during the day; therefore, the staff of the provincial Malaria Control Programme has been directed to immediately carry out spraying in the city to kill the virus.
The National Institute of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization is also preparing a long-term plan to control similar outbreaks in future.
Health Minister Nasir Khan has directed for early implementation of a Rs37million programme to establish Bio-Safety Level III laboratory, the funding of which has already been approved by the federal government. The laboratory will be set up within the premises of the National Institute of Health after which blood samples would be processed within Pakistan instead of being send abroad.
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