Re: Pakistan: Unidentified disease kills 14 women in Bajaur Agency
Published Date: 2014-05-05 20:55:05
Subject: PRO/EDR> Undiagnosed hemorrhagic disease - Pakistan: (FATA) fatal, female field workers
Archive Number: 20140505.2449531
UNDIAGNOSED HEMORRHAGIC DISEASE - PAKISTAN: (FEDERALLY ADMINISTERED TRIBAL AREAS) FATAL, FEMALE FIELD WORKERS
*************************************************************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
[1]
Date: Sun 4 May 2014
Source: The Express Tribune [edited]
The affected women reportedly experienced similar symptoms, which started from pain in the upper part of the body and eventually led to bleeding from the mouth and nose. All victims died within a few hours of showing these symptoms. Residents reported the deaths to health officials, who visited the area, the tribesman added.
Bajaur Agency Political Agent Syed Abdul Jabbar Shah confirmed the deaths and said he had directed the agency surgeon and agricultural experts to visit the area and conduct a thorough investigation. Declaring an emergency at the Agency Headquarters Hospital, he asked the hospital administration to take special care of the women suspected to be suffering from the mysterious ailment.
Agency Surgeon Dr Zakir Husain, who has already visited the area, said an investigation was currently under way and experts have narrowed the cause of death to 2 possibilities. "There could either be some poison in the area or the deaths were caused by a virus," he said.
Dr Pervez Kamal said they have asked WHO and NIH to investigate the mysterious disease. He said they sent a team of doctors and agricultural experts to the area but have yet to ascertain what caused the women to fall so sick. He said they have established medical camps in the affected areas to provide urgent treatment if any more people are affected, adding WHO teams will visit the areas now and send samples to NIH to ascertain the cause of deaths.
Interestingly, one of the doctors who visited the area, Dr Alam Khan, told The Express Tribune on Friday [2 May 2014] that the victims who died were suffering from other diseases like diabetes and stroke among others. He said an isolation ward was set up at the Agency Headquarters Hospital Khar for patients showing the said symptoms but no one had been admitted as of Fri 2 May 2014. "It is a phobia," he said, and as far as they know the victims did not die of any mysterious disease but from other known ailments.
[Byline: Asad Zia]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
******
[2]
Date: Fri 2 May 2014
Source: Dawn [edited]
<http://www.dawn.com/news/1103621/mysterious-disease-claims-lives-of-14-women-in-bajaur">
http://tribune.com.pk/story/703768/...ih-help-sought-following-10-deaths-in-bajaur/
Authorities have yet to determine what caused the mysterious deaths of at least 10 women from the same area of Bajaur Agency in the past week. The Federally Administrated Tribal Area (FATA) Secretariat has asked World Health Organization (WHO) and National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad to help investigate.
Tribesmen from Warrah Mamond tehsil [administrative division similar to a county] of Bajaur Agency reported that at least 10 women who worked in grazing fields have died from what they believe is the same illness. While talking to The Express Tribune, FATA Secretariat Director Health Services Dr Pervez Kamal Khan said 5 other women have been admitted to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Khar and 3 in Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.
A tribesman from Warrah tehsil, said the victims were residents of Dabar, Badan, and [Saro Shah]. "The deaths have spread fear and panic in the area and people have instructed their women and children not to visit the fields," he said.
The affected women reportedly experienced similar symptoms, which started from pain in the upper part of the body and eventually led to bleeding from the mouth and nose. All victims died within a few hours of showing these symptoms. Residents reported the deaths to health officials, who visited the area, the tribesman added.
Bajaur Agency Political Agent Syed Abdul Jabbar Shah confirmed the deaths and said he had directed the agency surgeon and agricultural experts to visit the area and conduct a thorough investigation. Declaring an emergency at the Agency Headquarters Hospital, he asked the hospital administration to take special care of the women suspected to be suffering from the mysterious ailment.
Agency Surgeon Dr Zakir Husain, who has already visited the area, said an investigation was currently under way and experts have narrowed the cause of death to 2 possibilities. "There could either be some poison in the area or the deaths were caused by a virus," he said.
Dr Pervez Kamal said they have asked WHO and NIH to investigate the mysterious disease. He said they sent a team of doctors and agricultural experts to the area but have yet to ascertain what caused the women to fall so sick. He said they have established medical camps in the affected areas to provide urgent treatment if any more people are affected, adding WHO teams will visit the areas now and send samples to NIH to ascertain the cause of deaths.
Interestingly, one of the doctors who visited the area, Dr Alam Khan, told The Express Tribune on Friday [2 May 2014] that the victims who died were suffering from other diseases like diabetes and stroke among others. He said an isolation ward was set up at the Agency Headquarters Hospital Khar for patients showing the said symptoms but no one had been admitted as of Fri 2 May 2014. "It is a phobia," he said, and as far as they know the victims did not die of any mysterious disease but from other known ailments.
[Byline: Asad Zia]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
******
[2]
Date: Fri 2 May 2014
Source: Dawn [edited]
<
http://www.dawn.com/news/1103621/mysterious-disease-claims-lives-of-14-women-in-bajaur
At least 14 women have died during the past week and several others suffering with infection after a mysterious disease broke out in Warrah Mamond area of Bajaur Agency. Local people told Dawn on Thu 1 May 2014, that the disease had hit people in the mountainous areas of Dabar, Badan, Saro Shah, and surrounding localities of Warrah Mamond, 16 km [10 mi] from Khar, the agency headquarters. "As many as 14 women have died within a week while many others are infected after the disease spread in the area," said a local tribesman, said.
When contacted, Agency Surgeon Dr Zakir Hussain also confirmed the prevalence of the disease and casualties of several women because of it in the area. He said that the health condition of all the women who died from the disease was normal before being infected. They were between 40 and 50 years of age, he said. Talking to this correspondent on Thu 1 May 2014, he said that the mysterious disease broke out among women in different areas of Warrah Mamond a week ago.
"Several women have died within a week and many others are seriously affected by an unknown disease," he said. The agency surgeon, who visited the affected areas, said that a large number of women had been infected by the disease. "The disease is serious and fatal and we have not seen indications of such a disease in the agency before," Dr Hussain said.
He said that several health teams comprising senior doctors and paramedics had been sent to the affected areas to overview the situation and identify the cause of the disease. Answering a question, he said that the health department was making efforts to find out the main cause of the disease, adding that all patients died a short time after contracting the disease.
Bajaur Agency political Agent Abdul Jabar Shah told reporters on that the administration had asked the local health department to arrange medical camps in the area to ensure medical care to the affected patients. The residents have complained of lack of health facilities for the infected women in the area and expressed concern over the situation.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[
This illness associated with a bleeding diathesis could be a hemorrhagic fever. In Pakistan, both dengue and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) exist. Neither, however, seem to be the etiology here, if a common etiology exists, as dengue hemorrhagic fever is most common in children and it is not the correct season for CCHF. CCHF, in Pakistan, (Rai MA, Khanani MR, Warraich HJ, et al: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Pakistan. J Med Virol. 2008 Jun; 80(6): 1004-6. doi: 10.1002/jmv.21159) occurs mostly at and around the time of Eid-ul-Adha, an Islamic festival, celebrated on day 10 through 13 of the 12th month of each lunar calendar year. At this time of the year in Pakistan, livestock are brought down to the urban areas from the rural parts of the country. Animals are housed in open spaces and private houses until they are slaughtered during the 3 days of Eid-ul-Adha. This allows the CCHF virus, which is carried by a tick that inhabits the animal hide, to be transmitted through unprotected contact with live animals as well as through contact with animal blood subsequent to slaughter. Postings regarding CCHF in Pakistan that have appeared in ProMED primarily between September and November are listed below. - Mod.LL]
[
Remarkably, fever has not been mentioned as a symptom. - Mod.JW
