RAWALPINDI, Dec 11: A woman died of suspected Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in the Rawalpindi General Hospital (RGH) on Sunday while another suspected case was admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) the same day.

Rukhsana Iqbal, 35, was brought to the RGH on Saturday at 6pm after she developed high fever and a serious bleeding disorder a few days after she gave birth to her eighth child in a private clinic.

“It was a mishandled delivery case,” Dr Habib Ahmed Khan, medical superintendent of the RGH, told Dawn when contacted.

“When her relatives brought her to the RGH the patient had been bleeding seriously. She was given blood and a senior lady doctor handled her but she died on Sunday afternoon,” he said.

However suspicion that she was the victim of the deadly CCHF arose because her husband, Mohammad Iqbal of Karimpura Mohalla, works at a cattle skin washing factory.

Though he insisted that symptoms of CCHF were not detected in Rukhsana’s case, Dr Habib said that her blood sample had been sent to National Institute of Health (NIH) for the confirmation of the diagnosis.

“All possible infection control measures have been taken. The operation theatre where the woman was operated was closed and fumigated,” he added.

Meanwhile, the man admitted to Pims with suspected CCHF virus, Ejaz Ahmad, is a butcher from Abbottabad.

Ejaz, 27, was rushed to Pims after he developed the symptoms the day after his cousin, Mohammad Abid, also a butcher, died of high fever and excessive bleeding in an Abbottabad hospital on Saturday.

The city authorities have banned sale of sheep meat in Abbottabad, after the incident, sources told Dawn.

Pims sources said Ejaz has been kept in isolation and his blood sample would be sent to the National Health Institute (NIH) for onward transmission to the laboratories in South Africa to determine whether he was CCHF case.

Doctors say CCHF is transmitted to human beings by ticks, and also through direct contact with the blood and secretions of an infected animal or patient.

Hospital sources said that no safety measures were followed for the transportation of Rukhsana’s body. Neither the body was chlorinated nor wrapped in plastic sheets to ensure safe transportation and burial.

As the news of transportation of the body to its native town Sialkot reached there, a man who identified himself as a nazim from Sialkot contacted the RGH authorities on Sunday night asking them not to send the body of the victim of suspected of Congo fever, the hospital source said.