The public health reference laboratory at Khyber Medical University has been requested by the health department to receive samples from suspicious patients in all of the province's districts.
Health professionals have advised avoiding getting up close and personal with animals at livestock markets or during Eid al- Azha . Sacrifice ceremonies. As health facilities have begun receiving patients infected with Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, they have requested not to close with animals..
"CCHF is typically spread through touch and through ticks ."blood after coming into contact with an infected animal. At one of the medical teaching institutions last year, a Class-IV employee contracted the infection from a patient and passed away. The virus is brought on by tick bites, according to a top expert.
District officials are instructed by the health department to send samples to KMU lab for testing.
Four patients with Congo fever were admitted by the Hayatabad Medical Complex doctors. One of the patients passed away while the others were being probed and two of the patients were confirmed.
"The cases of Congo virus are increasing since four patients are now receiving insufficient care at only one of the hospital wards. Two of the patients could pay for the Congo PCR at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Aga Khan University .And Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre , which charge Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 13,000 for the tests, respectively," a doctor told Dawn a few hours ago following the passing of one of the patients.
The hospital staff was collecting donations on Wednesday to pay for the PCR tests of the other two patients when a team from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's directorate-general of health services (DGHS) stopped by and told them the investigations could be done at Khyber Medical University's public health reference laboratory for no charge.
A senior official at DGHS informed Dawn, "We are also releasing a circular to instruct all the hospitals around the province to transport specimens from the suspicious patients to the KMU."
Additionally, PCR testing are being run in the KMU lab .plus Covid-19. Four to five samples are sent to the PHRL every day. We have instructed the directors of the medical teaching institutions and the medical superintendents of district headquarters hospitals to provide samples to PHRL, the official added.
The health department should make sure that the tests are carried out at the district level hospitals, according to the hospital doctors. The health administration developed 17 PCR laboratories in the same number of districts during Covid-19; as a result, those should also be used for Congo tests. The districts' time spent waiting for findings and sending samples to Peshawar will be significantly longer, according to a top doctor.
However, officials claimed that in order to execute Congo PCR tests, specialised personnel that is now only accessible at PHRL was needed.
The doctor claimed that each medical instruction .The equipment to do PCR tests for Covid-19 was available at a medical teaching institution. He continued by saying that all KMU had to do to make it happen was buy the probe.
If we are unable to control the sickness, the least we can do is offer those who are afflicted a test that is out of reach for most people given the current state of the economy. Contact with infectious blood or bodily fluids can spread the disease from one affected person to another. According to him, the patients need supportive treatment, antiviral drugs, and maintenance of their body fluid levels.
According to the health expert, the government must direct the appropriate department to make sure that people do not come into touch with animals and are protected from the sickness. which had about 40pc mortality.
In normal days, only the professional people, such as butchers and cleaners at the slaughter house risk the Congo fever but now the risk is high as people are visiting cattle markets to buy sacrificial animals for Eid- al -Adha.
“People use to roam with sacrificial animal before Eid in the streets and on Eid day. It is considered a religious obligation to touch the animal, which endangers their lives,” said the physician
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