CCHFV, Pakistan

The authorities of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) have issued Congo [Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, CCHF] emergency in the city and have assigned teams to check the sacrificial animals coming from other districts of Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan for the presence of Congo virus, Daily Times learnt on [Sun 21 Aug 2016].

After the death of Bahawalpur’s animal trader due to CCHF in Karachi last week [week of 15 Aug 2016], authorities have finally taken notice. On [Sun 21 Aug 2016], through a letter, teams of veterinary doctors were constituted to examine the animals at cattle market. The animal trader is said to get affected by the virus in the Karachi cattle market.

In a letter written by Karachi Commissioner to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator, it was asked to constitute teams of veterinary doctors of KMC to examine these animals at the cattle market and direct the officers concerned to make immediate arrangements to keep them away from the other animals/cattle to prevent any untoward situation. However, in the letter, the commissioner has not mentioned what exactly the teams would be doing with the animals at the cattle market.

According to Dr Zafar Mehdi, focal person on the government facility for prevention of _Naegleria_ and CCHF, a 22-year-old man from Bahawalpur had brought sacrificial animals in the city to sell ahead of Eidul Azha [or Eid al-Adha, Festival of the Sacrifice] died at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) after being inflicted with the Congo fever, taking the toll of victims of the disease in the city to 4 this year [2016].

The trader’s death alarmed the local authorities to make sure that the hundreds of thousands of animals, already brought to the animal market off the Superhighway, were safe from the tick that transfers the lethal disease to humans.

CCHF is a widespread tick-borne viral disease that is endemic in Africa, Balkans, the Middle East, and Asia. The virus is a member of the _Bunyaviridae_ family of RNA viruses.

The CCHF virus causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks, with a case fatality rate of 10-40 percent.

Ed Rybicki’s insight:
And that’s a TICK-borne bunyavirus…B-)

CCHFV, Pakistan
Source: Virology News