People Must Ensure Sacrificial Animals' Cleanliness To Avoid Congo

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd August, 2016) : State Minister for Health Saira Afzal Tarar has said that people buying animals for sacrificial purpose on Eid ul Azha must ensure their cleanliness to prevent the Congo virus.

Talking to a private news channel, the Minister said that though the probability of spreading the virus was quite low as only animals having ticks in their bodies are harmful. She said that more than 100 people infected with Congo virus have been isolated from gerneral public in Lodhran and Bahawalpur while a team of medical officers from Federal capital had also reached there.

"We had received 61 more samples from Lodhran and Bahawalpur and all are negative", she added. When asked about the patients infected by the virus she informed that their condition was stable now and quick response from the government saved many lives from this fatal virus. To a question she said that its diagnosis was carried out in spacial labs that were only available in Islamabad and Karachi so far.

"Symptoms of Congo virus are high fever, body/muscles pain with red spots appearing on body however about 80% patients can be cured if they are diagnosed at early stage," she said.