The Rajasthan government has started screening all passengers travelling from Pakistan to India on Thar Link Express following two deaths due to Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).
Passengers landing at the Jaipur international airport are also being examined.
Congo Fever, or CCHF as it is commonly known, is caused by the bite of a tick found in cattle.Health personnel have been asked to follow up the fever cases at the addresses given at the time of entry at Bhagat ki Kothi station in Jodhpur where the Thar Link Express arrives, Health Minister Rajendra Rathore said here on Wednesday.
Congo fever cases were reported from a private hospital in Jodhpur where a patient had died of unknown viral haemorrhagic fever last week. Within days, two male nurses who had attended to the deceased in the ICU also developed mysterious viral haemorrhagic fever, and both died – one at the same hospital and the second one at AIIMS in New Delhi where he was taken for treatment. Biological samples of the two tested positive for Congo fever which made the doctors assume that the first patient Jabbar Singh of Rattan ki Dhani in Pokhran was suffering from Congo fever which infected the two staffers attending on him. However, no Congo fever test had been conducted on him.
Three more employees of the same hospital are being treated for the same disease in Ahmedabad where two are fast recovering. The third one is under treatment at his residence in Jodhpur.
According to Mr. Rathore, all persons who came in contact with either the deceased or those infected have been screened and were under surveillance. People living in 50 houses around the residence of the patients and the private hospital have also been screened to pick up any individual with Congo fever symptoms.
In Rattan in Dhani, 35 samples from villagers and 36 samples of cattle have been sent for testing, and the tick responsible for causing Congo fever was actually found in some cattle.
Meanwhile, under criticism from the Congress for its handling of swine flu (AH1N1), Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Wednesday announced free treatment for swine flu cases at public health facilities. This would include diagnostics and medicines. She chaired a meeting and reviewed the swine flu situation in the State.
