Deadly hemorrhagic fever kills five in Pakistan

KARACHI - Hemorrhagic fever has killed at least five people, including a woman doctor, and infected around 45 people in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi.

The cause of the death of Yusra Afaq, a doctor in a government-run hospital, last week has been identified as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

The remaining four deaths, which occurred over the last six weeks, were also caused by hemorrhagic fever but the exact type was still not known, said Naushad Sheikh, permanent secretary at the health ministry of southern Sindh province.

Karachi is the capital of Sindh province.

"The hospitals in Karachi have been put on high alert after 45 more cases of hemorrhagic fever were reported," he told Reuters.

Doctors say headaches and vomiting, followed by bleeding through the nose, mouth and ears are the symptoms of hemorrhagic fevers. The illness is often accompanied by hepatitis and pulmonary failure.

Shabbir Ahmad Qaimkhani, provincial health minister, said doctors had been instructed to take special protective measures while dealing with patients after Afaq's death.

"All the patients of hemorrhagic fever are in isolation wards to minimize chances of spread of the disease," Qaimkhani said.

Four people were killed in southwestern province of Baluchistan last year because of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

Locally called Congo virus fever, the disease is endemic in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, southern Europe and most of north Africa. The disease is spread by ticks from animals to humans, or from humans to humans.

- REUTERS