Man with Congo fever dies as other passengers checked for illness

Published on 07/10/2012 00:00

A 38-YEAR-OLD man has died of Crimean-Congo ­Viral Haemorrhagic Fever (CCVHF) after returning to Scotland from Afghanistan.

It is the first confirmed case of CCVHF in the UK, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

The man, who has not been named, was diagnosed when he returned to Glasgow on a flight from Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday. He had flown into Scotland on a connecting flight from Dubai.

Four other passengers who sat close to him on the flight from Dubai to Glasgow are undergoing daily health checks.

The man was being treated in isolation at Glasgow’s Gartnavel General Hospital’s Brownlee Centre, which specialises in infectious disease, before being transferred to an infectious diseases unit at London’s Royal Free Hospital on
Friday. He died yesterday.

“Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever can be acq­uired from an infected
patient only through direct contact with their blood or body fluids, therefore there is no risk to the general public,” the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust said.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it has identified and contacted four ­passengers who may have had contact with the ­patient.

The health board said two of them – one who remained in “close proximity” to the ill man during the flight – will be monitored on a daily basis for the next two weeks for any developments of relative symptoms.

The other two passengers do not require follow-up surveillance and the risk to all other passengers on the flight from Dubai is “extremely low”.

CCHVF is especially common in east and west Africa and is fatal in about 30 per cent of human cases.