DUSHANBE, August 8, 2009, Asia-Plus — No new fatal cases of viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) have been reported in the Tursunzoda district, Deputy Health Minister also Tajikistan’s Head Sanitary Physician, Azamjon Mirzoyev, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
Mirzoyev denied report released by some media that seven persons had died of VHF in Tursunzoda as unfounded.
We will recall that Azamjon Mirzoyev told Asia-Plus on August 7 that three residents of the Tursunzoda district, some 60 kilometers west of Dushanbe, have died of hemorrhagic fever. “Among them are the brothers Kholmanov, 50 and 47, from the village of Ziyoratut and the 47-year-old head of the infectious diseases department within the local central district hospital Askar Umarov,” the deputy minister said. Umarov died of the disease on August 6.
According to him, the first case of the disease was reported in the village of Ziyoratut on July 27. “To this date, five persons have been diagnosed with hemorrhagic fever; three of them died,” said Mirzoyev. “24 persons that had contact with VHF patients are currently under the care of physicians. Antiepidemic measures have been taken in Ziyoratut.”
“Two other persons that were diagnosed with the disease are currently in stable condition and those 24 persons that had contact with the VHF patients will be discharged from the hospital within the next few days,” the deputy minister said in an interview with Asia-Plus on Saturday.
The viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are a diverse group of animal and human illnesses that are caused by five distinct families of RNA viruses: the Arenaviridae, Filoviridae, Bunyaviridae, Togaviridae, and Flaviviridae. All types of VHF are characterized by fever and bleeding disorders and all can progress to high fever, shock and death in extreme cases. Some of the VHF agents cause relatively mild illnesses, such as the Scandinavian nephropathia epidemica, while others, such as the African Ebola virus, can cause severe, life-threatening disease.
The Arenaviridae include the viruses responsible for Lassa fever and Argentine, Bolivian and Venzuelan hemorrhagic fever. The Bunyaviridae include the members of the Hantavirus genus that cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus from the Nairovirus genus, and the Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus from the Phlebovirus genus. The Filoviridae include Ebola and Marburg viruses. Finally, the Flaviviridae include dengue, yellow fever, and two viruses in the tick-borne encephalitic group cause VHF: Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus and Kyasanur Foreist disease virus.
