RAWALPINDI, Sept 30: Holy Family Hospital (HFH) has received a male patient with symptoms of deadly Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).

Muhammad Imtiaz, 45, from Chakwal, arrived at HFH on Thursday with continuous gum and stool bleeding and was shifted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where doctors suspected him first as a patient of dengue, malaria and typhoid.

“We received test reports of the patient on Sunday and found that he was not suffering from malaria, typhoid or dengue fever. So, we decided to send blood samples to National Institute of Health for Congo serology on Monday,” said Dr Javed Hayat, HFH In-charge Infectious diseases, while talking to Dawn.

He said that the condition of the patient was stable as he was not suffering from fever and the bleeding had stopped.

“For the satisfaction of the consultant, the sample will be dispatched to NIH for Congo serology,” he said.

However, the news about the presence of Congo fever in the hospital caused a panic. The Punjab government assigned the duty of the Divisional Director Health, Dr Zafar Iqbal Gondal to visit the area from where the patient came.

Dr Zafar Iqbal visited Chakwal City and Choa Saidan Shah and examined 35 people and found no virus of dengue or Congo among them.

He directed the District Officer Health of Chakwal to monitor these people and immediately admit in the hospital, in case of fever in the next 48 hours.

“I have examined the people who are close to the patient, Muhammad Imtiaz, at HFH and the health department team will observe the health of these people for the next 48 hours,” said Dr. Gondal.

He said that Eid was near and the district health departments of all the four districts of Rawalpindi Division must provide vaccinations to sacrificial animals as this virus spreads through animals.

Viral hemorrhagic fever belongs to Zoonotic diseases that animals cause to humans. Of all the disease-causing human viruses, these are the only ones for which the animal host and the virus life cycle could not be known around the globe so far.

It may be mentioned here that this would be the second case of Congo fever, if the Congo serology report confirms it.

The first case: 60-year-old, Muhammad Razzaq was brought to HFH on August 27 from Choa Saidan Shah and who died on August 29.