Despite the fact that province of Punjab is totally safe from Congo Virus, all hospitals in the province have been put on high alert.
Sources in the provincial Health Department told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that guidelines issued by the National Institute of Health Islamabad about this deadly virus had already been passed on to all district executive officers (Health), principals and medical superintendents of all the teaching hospitals of the province.
Apart from this, anti-virus medicines have also been supplied in all the hospitals to save doctors and para medical staff from it.
About the virus, the sources said that a tick bite or contact with an infected animal could cause Congo. It can sometimes cause patients literally to bleed to death after the blood is unable to clot properly. There is no known vaccine against the drug to benefit the affected people.
It may be mentioned that a young woman house officer of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, died on Sunday last after reportedly contracting Congo virus. She was admitted at Aga Khan Hospital where the young doctor breathed her last. She was married three months back. Officials said that it was not Congo virus, but a virus having similar symptoms.
Health experts told this scribe that a tick bite or contact with an infected animal or person could cause Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever. Because, the infected person suddenly becomes ill with fever, dizziness, neck pain, aching muscles and stiffness, and recurrent headaches within a few days, they said.
Soon after vomiting and diarrhoea set in, the volume of blood platelets falls, causing the blood to be unable to clot properly. The bleeding then begins from the gums, from under the skin, in the nose and internal organs. Without treatment, a patient can literally bleed to death, they added.
They urged the government to conduct workshops for educating doctors and para medical staff about the measures needed to treat and control the spread of the disease.
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