Congo fevers kills 3 men in Ahmedabad district
TNN | Aug 17, 2013, 01.06 AM IST
AHMEDABAD: The dreaded Congo fever is suspected to have claimed lives of three men in Barvalataluka in Ahmedabad district. Following this, the health department has asked medical and veterinary teams to undertake fogging operations to contain the virus which spreads through ticks found on the cattle.
Regional deputy director of health at Civil Hospital Dr Neelam Patel said that three men were reported dead in Kundal village in Barwala due to haemorrhagic fever suspected to be the Congo fever. Moreover, two relatives of the victims, including a woman, too have been admitted in the Bhavnagar Government Hospital. The victims belong to Bharwad families staying in the same locality.
District health officer Dr Shilpa Jadhav said that the teams of health department and animal husbandry department have been sent to the village to carry out extensive anti-viral operations and undertake cleanliness drives. The ticks which are known to carry Congo virus are being plucked from the cattle. The officials said that the cleanliness drive has been undertaken in the 5 km radius of the village.
Earlier, four persons of Kariyana village in Babra taluka of Amreli district had died of confirmed Congo fever as their reports had tested positive for Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).
In India, CCHF virus had first surfaced in Gujarat in January 2011 when Amina Momin, a woman from Kolat village in Sanand died of the virus.