Quetta (July 4, 2017): Yet another case of feared Congo virus has surfaced here with the confirmation of its afflicting an eight-year-old girl.
According to details the Kirani Road resident was brought to Fatima Jinnah hospital in serious condition on Jun 29. According to the head of Contingious Diseases Department of the Hospital Dr Naseer Ahmad the blood of the girl sent to Karachi for test confirmed that she is affected by Congo virus.
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Two other suspected Congo virus patients are also being admitted in the hospital the blood samples of whom have will also be sent to Karachi for the relevant test, he informed.
Dr. Naseer disclosed that 35 suspect Congo virus patients have been brought to the hospital so far this year of whom 10 were confirmed to be effected with the virus. Six of the patients have died of whom two were confirmed to be effected with the virus, he added.
Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a widespread tick-borne viral disease that is endemic in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia. The virus is a member of the Bunyaviridae family of RNA viruses. It is a zoonotic disease carried by several domestic and wild animals. While clinical disease is rare in infected animals, it is severe in infected humans, with a mortality rate of 10–40 percent. Outbreaks of illness are usually attributable to Hyalomma tick bites or contact with infected animals or people. CCHF is one of several viral diseases identified by WHO as a likely cause of a future epidemic. They recommend it for urgent research and development.
Typically, after a 1–3 day incubation period following a tick bite (5–6 days after exposure to infected blood or tissues), flu-like symptoms appear, which may resolve after one week. In up to 75 percent of cases, however, signs of hemorrhage appear within 3–5 days of the onset of illness in case of bad containment of the first symptoms: mood instability, agitation, mental confusion and throat petechiae; and soon after nosebleeds, vomiting, and black stools. The liver becomes swollen and painful. Disseminated intravascular coagulation may occur, as well as acute kidney failure, shock, and sometimes acute respiratory distress syndrome. Patients usually begin to show signs of recovery after 9-10 days from when symptoms presented. However 30% of the cases result in death by the end of the second week of illness.
Since the 1970s, several vaccine trials around the world against CCHF have been terminated due to high toxicity. The only available and probably somewhat efficacious CCHF vaccine is an inactivated antigen preparation currently used in Bulgaria. More modern vaccines are under development, but the sporadic nature of the disease, even in endemic countries, suggests that large trials of vaccine efficacy will be difficult to perform. Finding volunteers may prove challenging, given the growing resistance of populations to vaccination against contagious diseases such as measles or poliomyelitis. The number of people to be vaccinated, and the length of time they would have to be followed to confirm protection would have to be carefully defined. Alternatively, many scientists appear to believe that treatment of CCHF with ribavirin is more practical than prevention, but some recently conducted clinical trials appear to counter assumptions of drug efficacy.
In 2011, a Turkish research team led by Erciyes University successfully developed the first non-toxic preventive vaccine, which passed clinical trials. The vaccine is pending approval by the USFDA.
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