DUSHANBE, August 13, 2009, Asia-Plus — Young man who was diagnosed with hemorrhagic fever and is currently in the Dushanbe infectious diseases hospital is now in stable health condition, Deputy Health Minister also Head Sanitary Physician of Tajikistan, Azamjon Mirzoyev, told a press conference in Dushanbe today.
According to him, the young man who was selling watermelons at one of Dushanbe’s markets was hospitalized on August 9. “The patient and thirteen persons who had contact with him are currently under care of physicians,” the deputy minister said.
On the situation in the Tursunzoda district, where the first five cases of hemorrhagic fever were reported, Mirzoyev said that two persons that had been diagnosed with hemorrhagic fever and 39 persons that had been hospitalized in Tursunzoda on suspicion of having contracted the disease had already been discharged from the hospital.
We will recall that three of those five having contracted hemorrhagic fever in Tursunzoda died.
Asked about the possibility of viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) epidemic in Tajikistan, Mirzoyev said that such a possibility was very low. However, he added that it could not be ruled out that sporadic cases of the diseases would occur.
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 Venezuelan 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.
