Ebola like Virus at Pakistani Border
no-war | 05.10.2001 09:37
UK talk radio show 'talk sport' who are constantly updated with events concerning 'the war on terrorism' via wire,last night reported that around 100 Afghan refugees near the pakistan border were found with viral symptoms 'likened to the ebola virus'.Pakistani border control units have learnt of this and refuse to let the refugees anywhere near their borders.
no-war
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Reported in many other places
05.10.2001 10:02
Including bbc:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1579000/1579521.stm
Thursday, 4 October, 2001, 17:20 GMT 18:20 UK
Ebola style virus hits Pakistan
Health authorities are requesting extra resources to cope with the outbreak
A highly contagious disease similar to the dreaded Ebola virus has broken out along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
Afghan refugees are particularly at risk from the outbreak
Health authorities are warning of an epidemic among the thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing their homeland in fear of US military strikes.
On Thursday, a Pakistani man became the eighth person to die since June of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever (CCHF).
Dr Taj Mohammad of the Fatimah Jinnah Chest and General Hospital in Quetta said his facility had received a total of almost 70 cases this year.
CCHF is less lethal than the Ebola virus but has similarly horrific symptoms, including massive haemorrhaging from every orifice.
Refugee risk
Most of the latest cases have been reported in Baluchistan, which has become a destination for hundreds of thousands of Afghans fleeing drought and war.
"It's unheard of - very unusual," Dr Mohammad told the Reuters news agency.
"There's a real risk of an epidemic among Afghan refugees," he was quoted as saying.
Seven out of ten people infected by Congo Virus die.
The horrendous sanitary conditions provide an ideal breeding ground for the virus, which is spread by small insects from animals to humans.
Pakistan has closed its borders with Afghanistan, but has already accepted more refugees than it says it can cope with.
Extra resources
The head of Fatimah Jinnah Hospital, Akhlaq Hussain, told the AFP news agency he had written to the federal government appealing for extra resources to cope with the outbreak.
The hospital has set up a special isolation ward.
The virus has surfaced before in the area and was thought to have been brought under control.
Additional:
Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF)
First noted by Russian scientists in the Crimea in 1944
Isolated in 1956 in a patient in the Congo
Usual route of infection via the bite of the Hyalomma tick
Can be passed from person to person
Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, vomiting, and pains in the stomach and lower back
This is followed by haemorrhages, nosebleeds, and other blood loss
Seven out ten people who are infected die.
Also see:
UNHCR
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
International Red Cross
http://www.ifrc.org/
Centres for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/
mhor
A new kind of War
05.10.2001 10:31
the G8
EXCUSE ME!
05.10.2001 12:07
1944, Crimea, gee, I wouldn't think very many US doctors around there then.
Calling CCHF "ebola" because it is somewhat similar in symptoms and also known to exist in Africa causes confusion.
Tick vectored diseases aren't exactly uncommon in war and refugee situations. They often persist in the wild (ie: tick some susceptible mammals) in various areas with humans rarely catching them only because humans aren't getting bitten by the particular ticks involved. The deadly (to humans) "Rocky Mountain Spotted fever" is endemic in much of the US but you don't hear of many people getting it. CCHF disease could perhaps always been there OR gotten there during the war with Russia (Crimea, remember).
Mike
e-mail: stepbystemfarm@shaysnet.com
Bio-War 101 Set up your own BioWar project!
05.10.2001 12:26
@lex
Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/j18hellas/mag2.html
hey mike
05.10.2001 13:07
germ warfare is germ warfare is germ warfare.......
WHY the outbreak now ?
'This will be a very different war' (your great 'leader'said that)
why now ?
why now ?
why now ?
...
A new Kind of Warfare
05.10.2001 16:09
the G8
all just niggers to the rulers of this world
05.10.2001 22:31
the ex