RAWALPINDI: A man was diagnosed with the Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) at the Holy Family Hospital on Wednesday.

Zulfiqar Ahmed, 28, contracted the disease when buying an animal for Eid at the cattle market and came to the hospital presenting symptoms of the Congo virus on September 5. Samples of his blood were sent to the National Institute of Health where he was diagnosed with the Congo fever on Wednesday.

A senior doctor at HFH told Dawn the patient worked in a furniture workshop in Rawalpindi and had travelled to his native town in Attock 10 days ago to buy an animal he could resell in Rawalpindi. The doctor said Mr Ahmed had contracted the disease at the cattle market in Attock.

The doctor said Mr Ahmed’s condition is stable but needs treatment as his platelet count is low at 22,000 when a count of 100,000 is normal.

“His blood pressure and urine samples were normal and we can say that the patient is recovering,’ he said.

The diagnosis of a Congo case spurred the provincial health department into action and the Adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Raffique paid a visit to the hospital to look over the arrangements made for dengue and Congo fever patients.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2016