Victim of rare Crimean-Congo disease was ‘hard-working family man’ from Glasgow

A MARRIED father from Glasgow who died in the UK’s first case of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) has been described as “hard-working and family-orientated”.

The 38-year-old, who had a young son, died in hospitalon Saturday – two days after laboratory tests confirmed he had the disease.

He returned to the UK from Afghanistan on Tuesday, via a connecting flight from Dubai.

His friend Mohammed Asif said he was an Afghan national who came to Britain seekingasylum several years ago and lived with his wife and young son, aged around five or six, in Glasgow, where he owned agarage in the East End.

Mr Asif said the man had been in Afghanistan to attend his brother’s wedding in Samangan Province.

Concerns have now been raised about three of his family members in the village of Aibak, Afghanistan, who are said to be displaying symptoms of the fever.

Mr Asif, acting chairman of the Scottish Afghan Society, of which the man was a member, said: “I spoke with friends over there about two hours ago, one of his brothers is having the same problems he did – vomiting, body aches and pains in his ear. Two women from the family also have some symptoms.

“We have tried to give them advice, telling them that anyone showing symptoms should stay away from the rest of the family.

“We have also contacted a local politician and sent over British news reports to be translated, to let them know how dangerous it can be”

The man was picked up from Glasgow Airport on Tuesday by a friend, and within three hours was admitted to hospital.

He was initially treated inisolation at Gartnavel General Hospital’s Brownlee Centre, which specialises in infectious disease, before being flown to a high-security infectious disease unit at London’s Royal FreeHospital.

Mr Asif said the man missed his original connecting flight from Dubai and stayed the night in a hotel, but did not leave the airport.

Mr Asif would not confirm the man’s name as some members of his family in Afghanistan are still being notified.

“We are all quite shocked,” he said. “He was a very nice guy, very family-orientated. He was hard-working – he worked very hard to provide for his family.

“He was an active member of the Afghan community here in Scotland. I spoke to him on the phone when he was in hospital as we weren’t allowed in to see him, and he told me he thought he was going to die. He was very dejected.

“It must be a terrible disease; there’s such a high mortality rate.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it had identified and contacted four passengers who might have had contact with the patient on the Emirates flight from Dubai to Glasgow.

The health board said two of them would be monitored on a daily basis for two weeks.

It added the risk to all other passengers and the general public was “extremely low”.

The Health Protection Agency said CCHF was a tick-borne viral disease which was especially common in east and west Africa and was fatal in up to 30 per cent of human cases.