Bangalore doctors clueless over Congo fever

The Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) has already hit the panic button in Gujarat with three deaths last week. While the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, is getting flooded with serum samples from across India, not many doctors in Bangalore are aware of the disease.

Sources in the health and family welfare department, Karnataka, said they had not received any communication from the Union ministry regarding CCHF.

Dr Sashidhar Buggi, director of SD Tuberculosis and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, said, “The state health department is yet to inform us about any guidelines or precautionary measures regarding CCHF. Since it is a new disease, caused by animal tick-borne virus, I don’t  know much about it.”

While it is not right at this point to conclude that Karnataka is under threat from CCHF, it all depends on how well Gujarat manages to contain the disease. “The disease is highly infectious and it is absolutely important to identify the disease at the earliest and isolate the patient,” said Dr Poornima Parthasarathy, consultant, infectious disease, Apollo Hospital.