Healthcare System Under Scrutiny
The 22-year-old was diagnosed with the viral illness by the PHRL last week.
“The animal dealer traveled to Punjab province to conduct cattle business and returned with a fever. He was initially treated symptomatically at his hometown of Charsadda before being admitted to the Khyber Teaching Hospital, where he tested positive for CCHF and died,” on request for confidentiality, a doctor stated.
Urgent Action is required.
He stated that the death was cause for concern because it occurred well before Eid-ul-Azha. “We’d expected that the CCHF cases would be reported in June and July, when cattle markets for Eid are set up, attracting crowds of people, but this death has turned out to be a cause for worry,” he stated.
The doctors also complained that the district headquarters hospitals continued to disregard the health department’s orders to transmit samples from probable CCHF cases to the Public Health Reference Lab at Khyber Medical University for free analysis.
When contacted, provincial director (public health) Dr. Irshad Roghani stated that an advisory regarding CCHF had already been issued to the district health departments, instructing medical superintendents of district headquarters hospitals to establish isolation wards for suspected cases and collect samples for testing by the PHRL.
Preventive Measures Implemented
“We have increased surveillance to guarantee that suspicious cases are tested and confirmed cases are quarantined to prevent the virus from spreading. Hospitals that do not send samples will face consequences, he warned.
Dr. Irshad stated that Health Minister Syed Qasim Ali Shah recently wrote a letter to all divisional commissioners outlining preventive measures against CCHF at livestock markets across the province.
He claimed that the minister ordered the closure of livestock markets for failing to comply with his directions.
“We have all the facilities for specialized CCHF tests at the PHRL, and therefore, the hospitals have been directed to start sending in samples from suspected cases for testing,” he stated.
According to the official, prominent private labs charge Rs15,000 or more for the test, whereas the PHRL does it for free.
He stated that previously, the health agency sent samples to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad and waited a long time for results.
“Now, we get results from the PHRL without delay, enabling us to respond fast,” he stated.
Meanwhile, health officials claimed the PHRL had only received 11 CCHF samples since January, one of which tested positive for the virus.
According to Dawn’s report, hemorrhagic fever was a common condition in which platelet levels in the blood were reduced, and doctors should collect samples from patients suffering from malaria and dengue hemorrhagic fever for testing.
According to officials, four people died from CCHF in 2022, all of them butchers.
They stated that the recent virus-related deaths prompted the tightening of monitoring procedures in livestock markets and slaughterhouses, the government must direct authorities to ensure that people do not come into contact with cattle in order to avoid contracting the disease, which has a 40% death rate.
They went on to say that ordinarily only butchers and abattoir cleaners were susceptible to Congo fever, but that now everyone was in danger because they had begun visiting cattle markets to purchase sacrifice animals for Eid.
The officials stated that the people’s vulnerability grew before and during Eid when they roamed the streets with sacrifice animals.
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