BAHAWALPUR: A senior registrar of the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) was put on ventilator after Karachi’s Aga Khan Hospital laboratory reports confirmed Congo virus.

The virus has been confirmed almost a fortnight after Dr Sagheer Sameeja went down with ‘high-grade fever’.

With somewhat similar symptoms and complications, Dr Owais, a house officer who works in the same ward under Dr Sagheer, also underwent tests in Karachi on Friday (the result is awaited).

102 staffers screened, four quarantined

To allay the anxiety of the BVH staff and general public after the word about the disease got round, the Punjab government sought a report from health experts to devise a course of action.

BVH Director Emergency Ward Dr Aamir Bokhari, while speaking to Dawn, confirmed Dr Sagheer’s condition and the tests of Dr Owais. Dr Bokhari said the two doctors were presumed to have carried the viral infection from Ms Nadia of Lodhran who underwent a surgery at the hospital’s surgical ward No 4 on July 16. The student-nurse expired a day after the surgery, he said.

Dr Sagheer, he figured out, suffered a fever attack soon afterwards and was initially thought to be suffering from dengue but lab tests proved negative. Dr Sagheer’s family finally took him to the Aga Khan Hospital on July 25 where he underwent tests that declared him to be a patient of Congo virus.

Dr Bokhari (the focal person) said Dr Owais assisted the senior surgeon in the nurse’s operation and had undergone tests after his illness worsened.

The confirmation of Congo virus panicked the BVH staff and 102 paramedics immediately underwent screening. Four employees including a professor, who worked with Dr Sagheer in the operation theatre, had been quarantined in a ward, he said.

OFFICIAL RESPONSE: Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique constituted a team of senior clinicians to assess the situation and furnish the department with a report, says a handout.

At a meeting, the DG health informed the participants about the nurse’s surgery and subsequent death and Dr Sagheer’s ailment. He said an alert had been issued in Lodhran and Bahawalpur districts and the health teams had quarantined all “contacts” of the nurse and the doctors. Moreover, medical teams of the World Health Organization and the health department are monitoring the situation, he said.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016