Boy suspected to be suffering from Congo fever dies

A 15-year-old boy suspected to be suffering from Congo fever died in Rajasthan's Jodhpur district on Saturday, officials said.

Rahul, a resident Jethantari village near Balotra town of Barmer district, was admitted to a local hospital for symptoms akin to the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and later shifted to the MDM hospital in Jodhpur, an official said.

The teenager was under treatment at the isolation ward of the hospital, but his family members decided to take him away to Ahmedabad against medical advice, said Kamlesh Choudhary, the chief medical and health officer (CMHO) of Barmer.

Rahul succumbed on the way to Ahmedabad on Saturday. The sample of his blood has been sent to the virology laboratory in Pune. It will be confirmed only after a report whether was suffering from CCHF or something else, Choudhary said.

After receiving information of his death, a team conducted a survey of the entire area and the persons who were in contact with the deceased, the official said. "But none of them have been found to have the symptoms of hemorrhagic fever."