KARACHI: A middle-aged man died of Congo-Crimean haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) at a hospital in the city on Saturday, taking the tally of such deaths to eight this year.

Officials in the Sindh health ministry identified the victim as Younus, who died at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre because of the infection caused by a tick in animals. However, JPMC officials could not be contacted to corroborate the report.

Officials said the number of victims of CCHF increased to eight in Sindh. They included a resident of Benazirabad, and two each belonging to Bahawalpur and Afghanistan. However, all of them died in the health facilities of Karachi.

So far, ministry officials said, it had documented some 80 cases of suspected CCHF in Sindh.

Dengue death

A 10-year-old girl, Marium, daughter of Mohammad Faisal, was confirmed to have died of dengue haemorrhagic fever at a private hospital, taking the tally to three in Sindh this year.

Officials said the child was suffering from high-grade fever and her platelet count had dropped alarmingly, which could not be stabilised despite supportive treatment.

They said they had documented more than 1,400 cases of the mosquito-borne disease in the province with a heavy number of them belonging to Karachi.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2016