The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday claimed that no new cases of the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) were reported from Gujarat even as a six-member central team of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) arrived in Ahmedabad to investigate the outbreak.
The National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune has sent a team as well.
Surveillance activity has been started in the affected area with the 33 teams of the State government having carried out house-to-house visits in six villages and three hamlets near Kolat, in the Sanand taluka, around 35 km from Ahmedabad, covering a population of more than 26,000 people, said an official statement issued by the Ministry here.
From among the 100-odd cases of fever detected, all but two, who are under surveillance, have recovered.
Fifty-eight samples have been collected, including from the staff of the hospital in Ahmedabad where three deaths were reported. Forty-five of them have already tested negative at the NIV. The State Animal Husbandry Department is conducting surveillance among domesticated animals.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has also surveyed 58 hospitals over the past 15 days for any unusual deaths. But not a single case had been reported for viral hemorrhagic fever.
A detailed treatment protocol for CCHF has been developed at the B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad, with the help of various experts.
Recommendations on prevention and treatment have been obtained from the World Health Organisation and shared with the Central team and the State government.
An expert team is also meeting to review the treatment protocol.
Congo fever, a highly infectious disease which spreads through the aerosol route, has no known treatment as yet. Among animals, it is transmitted through ticks.
The virus has been detected in India for the first time with three deaths reported since January 3.
