Hemorrhagic Fever Reported on Afghan Border

June 6, 2002
By TED ANTHONY, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - International medical officials are investigating an apparent outbreak of hemorrhagic fever that has killed three people in a hospital just across the Afghan border in Iran, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Two other people are being treated for what is believed to be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, WHO spokeswoman Laurie Hieber-Girardt said at a U.N. briefing.

All the victims are Afghans from the Saranj district of Nimroz province, Hieber-Girardt said. They were being treated in a hospital just across the border in Iran and had been put in isolation to prevent others, especially hospital workers, from being exposed.

"We are taking appropriate control measures to contain the disease," she said. Results of blood samples sent to France will be available Friday, and a WHO emergency medical team was on standby to travel to the area and set up a quarantine if the diagnosis was confirmed — something Hieber-Girardt called "likely."

That variety of hemorrhagic fever has a mortality rate of at least 30 percent, even with treatment, Hieber-Girardt said.

"It is of great concern," she said.

WHO learned of the outbreak Tuesday from doctors with Medicins Sans Frontiers, or Doctors Without Borders, a nongovernmental medical organization. The cases occurred up to 10 days ago, Hieber-Girardt said.

"That's how information travels," she said.

Last month, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said the same variety of hemorrhagic fever had killed 20 people since last year and infected 30 percent of that country's cattle.

The virus causing Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever — which is found in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe — is transmitted by ticks, which thrive on sheep and cattle. Infected people can transmit the virus by blood, saliva or droplets from sneezing.

The disease causes a sharp drop in platelets, which allow the blood to clot. Without rapid antiviral drug treatment and platelet replacements, victims can bleed to death.

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