No fresh CCHF cases, but Gujarat hospitals on alert

No fresh case of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) was detected in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, even as the husband of the first recorded victim of the disease was found to be 'clinically stable'.

Even as no new case of the near-fatal disease came to light in the city during the day, leading hospitals continued to be in a state of alert in case of any potential spurt in cases of the infection.

"The condition of the husband of Ameena Momin, the first known victim of CCHF, is clinically stable. He was admitted on January 16. His platelet count has fallen, but his condition is not deteriorating as in the case of other victims. All efforts are being made to save the patient, but we are keeping our fingers crossed," said Dr Nikhil Lala, deputy medical administrator of Sterling Hospital.

He also said that no new case of CCHF has been detected in their hospital. Officials of Shalby Hospital, Apollo Hospital and Shrey Hospital also informed that no fresh cases of CCHF had come to light.

Doctors and other medical personnel at Shalby and Shrey hospitals, who had come in close contact with CCHF patients, were being monitored.

"All such personnel have been isolated and are being closely monitored by trained doctors. We have also sent their blood samples to National Institute of Virology in Pune. The good thing is that none of them is showing any symptoms of CCHF, and there are no other patients with any suspected signs," Dr Pankaj Doshi, medical director of Shalby, and Dr Dharmanshu Chhaya, administrator of Shrey, said.

Medical sources said that besides the three registered deaths caused by CCHF in the last few days, there have been three to four more deaths due to the same virus. "However, it would have been difficult to ascertain the exact cause of the deaths in absence of proper diagnosis, which was ascertained only on Tuesday," said sources.

While stressing that the CCHF virus was dangerous, medical experts said it was not an air-borne or respiratory disease, and hence possibility of it spreading among masses was very low. However, they urged citizens to take precautions to protect themselves against the virus. "The virus strikes very fast and a patient may not even realise the seriousness of the disease. Our advice is that even in case of high fever, which is a basic symptom of all kinds of viral infections, citizens must not take any chance, and visit a specialist doctor," said Dr Doshi of Shalby. He added that medical staff attending patients suspected of having CCHF must take all the necessary precautions.

Besides high fever, body ache, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain are some of the other symptoms of CCHF virus. Experts said that while the human body automatically develops immunity against the virus in case of flu, the condition deteriorates rapidly in the case of CCHF, which makes it near-fatal.