A person with Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, a common disease caused by a virus spread by ticks, was put in a separate room at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital.
The patient is a 41-year-old woman from Aprikila Sub County in Kaberamaido District. She was admitted to Soroti Regional Referral Hospital on Wednesday after a referral from Kaberamaido Hospital, where she was taken to treat a headache and stomachache earlier in the week.
“While in Kaberamaido, we were told that her condition needed further management and she was referred to Soroti Regional Referral Hospital. It is from Soroti that we started hearing about the disease, “one of the nephews said.” ”
The Crimean Congo Fever virus is primarily transmitted to people by ticks and livestock animals, but according to medics, human-to-human transmission can occur resulting from close contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of an infected person.
The fever presents with headache, high fever, back pain, joint pain, stomach pain, and vomiting. The patient may also show reddish eyes, a flushed face, a red throat, and red spots on the palate, according to information from the Ministry of Health website. Outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 40 per cent, yet there is no vaccine available for either people or animals.
The patient is being managed at the COVID-19 isolation unit, according to Dr Wilson Etolu, a consultant physician at the hospital.
Uganda has previously recorded outbreaks of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever between 2013 and 2017 and between July 2018 and January 2019. This time, however, the outbreak coincides with an Ebola Virus Disease outbreak that has resulted in a lockdown of Kassanda and Mubende Districts in Central Uganda.
