Taliban’s head of the public health department in northern Jawzjan province said that a doctor died and five other healthcare employees were infected with Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).
The provincial officials in northern Afghanistan have said that healthcare employees got infected with CCHF, also known as “Congo Fever” while coming in contact with infected patients.
The healthcare officials did not know that certain patients were infected with CCHF, Taliban officials told Bakhtar news agency.
Zabihullah Hussaini, a Taliban official said that two local people had died of Congo Fever in the past week, Bakhtar news agency reported.
Certain healthcare procedures have been put in place in Jawzjan provincial hospital and patients infected with the diseases were quarantined, Taliban officials said.
The spread of Congo disease has been reported in northern Jawzjan and Faryab provinces over the past two decades.
Najibullah Tawana, the head of Taliban’s public health department in Balkh province has said that ten people were infected with Congo disease and were sent to Mazar-e-Sharif for treatment.
Furthermore, he added that two people have died of the disease at Abo Ali Sina Balkhi Hospital.
So far, the exact number of people infected with Congo fever is not available, and the Taliban has not given details about whether the disease has spread to other provinces.
Due to poor health services and facilities, compounded with poor hygiene and safe drinking water in remote parts of the country, Afghan people are very suitable to infectious diseases, resulting in the death of scores of people annually in different parts of Afghanistan.
