[Bagaimana pula jika penyakit ini menyerang tentera Amerika? Apakah ia satu bala atau 'bala tentera' ghaib yang dikirim dari langit agar manusia membuka mata? Sehebat manapun kecanggihan teknologi Amerika, ia tidak akan mampu berdepan dengan kuman halus ini yang sekaligus menggambarkan siapa yang lebih hebat sebenarnya.....
- Editor]

Virus ala-Ebola Melanda Sempadan Afghan

(Ebola-style killer virus sweeps Afghan border)

Oleh: Tim Butcher di Quetta

Ledakan terbesar dalam sejarah yang menyangkuti satu jenis penyakit yang sungguh berbahaya dan mudah berjangkit di mana mangsanya mengalami pendarahan di setiap rongganya sehingga mati telah diperakukan semalam di kawasan sempadan Pakistan dengan Afghanistan.

Sekurang-kurangnya 75 orang telah dijangkiti penyakit ini setakat ini dan lapan orang mangsa telah mati. Satu wad khas yang diasingkan dengan pagar berduri telah pun diwujudkan di bandar Quetta, Pakistan, dan satu rayuan sejagat telah dilancarkan untuk mendapatkan bantuan.

Ledakan 'Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever' (CCHF) itu dikatakan berpunca daripada Afghanistan, dan ini telah mencetuskan ketakutan betapa berjuta pelarian yang memasuki Pakistan turut dijangkiti virus tersebut.

CCHF itu mempunya kesan yang menyerupai virus ebola yang merosakkan urat darah, dan menjangkiti saluran yang lain sehingga menyebabkan alat-tubuh yang lain tidak berfungsi.

Seorang doktor pernah menyebut, seseorang pesakit yang dihinggapi penyakit ini 'ternyata mereput di depan mata'.

Di 'Fatima Jinnah Chest and General Hospital' di Quetta, ibu negeri provinsi Baluchistan, satu wad pengasingan yang dilengkapi lapan katil dan dua ruang pemerhatian telahpun disediakan.

Ismail Sadiq yang berumur sembilan tahun sedang terlantar di atas katil di situ, kelmarin. Badannya kepanasan dengan demam dan satu gumpalan kapas disumbat di lubang hidungnya untuk menyekat pendarahan.

Di bahagian luar wad itu, ahli keluarganya duduk menunggu di bawah teduhan sebatang pokok. Seorang lelaki tua diam menggentel bijian tasbih, sementara para doktor tidak membenarkan sesiapa menziarahi mangsa.

Ismail hanya boleh diziarahi oleh doktor dan jururawat yang terpaksa mengenakan pakaian khas yang disebut 'barrier nursing'. Pakaian ini menyerupai jejaring halus yang sudah dinyahkuman (sterilized hairnetting), topeng, sarung tangan, gaun dan pembalut kasut (overshoes).

Ada seorang mangsa lelaki, berusia 65 tahun yang terbaring di katilnya, dengan kesan darah kering di bahagian dagu, hidung, dan lidahnya. Bajunya pun penuh berlumuran darah.

Dr. Akhlaq Hussain, Penguasa hospital itu, berkata: 'Kes pertama penyakit ini muncul pada bulan Jun. Terdapat beberapa kematian, tetapi pada mulanya kami tidak tahu apa penyebabnya.'

Beberapa contoh darah telahpun dihantar kepada 'Pakistan's National Virology' sebuah pusat pengujian di Islmabad. Kemudian, contoh itu dihantar pula kepada South Africa's Ntional Institute of Virology di Johannesburg untuk diperakukan.

Dr.Hussain menambah: 'kami hanya sedar betapa kami menghadapi CCHF setelah laporan ujian itu diterima.' Ia sudahpun merakamkan satu senarai membabitkan 75 kes, yang membabitkan pendatang daripada Afghanistan ataupun mereka yang tinggal di kawasan sempadan dua negara itu.

Rekod penyakit itu yang pertama membabitkan askar Russia yang berkhidmat di Crimea pada 1944 dan kemudiannya di kalangan penduduk satu perkampungan di sebuah bandar Congo di Kisangani pada 1956. Hanya pada 1969, barulah pakar sains berjaya memisahkan satu virus yang muncul dalam dua peristiwa penyakit itu.

Walaupun sudah muncul beberapa kes sejak itu, jumlah yang dilanyak penyakit ini tidak pernah membengkak seperti yang sedang berlaku.

Doktor itu berkata: 'Kali pertama kita mengalami kes ini ialah pada 1970-an. Nampaknya sudah ada satu sarang virus ini di Afghanistan dan kami amat rungsing kesan dahsyat yang akan melanda para pendatang yang baru itu nanti.'

'Virus ini disebarkan oleh binatang ternakan, dan kalau mereka dibawa masuk dengan jumlah yang besar, kita boleh menjangkakan lebih banyak kes penyakit ini lagi.

Tamat.

Terjemahan: SPAR

Asal:

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml? xml=/news/2001/10/04/wref04.xml&site=5

Ebola-style killer virus sweeps Afghan border

By Tim Butcher in Quetta

(Filed: 04/10/2001)

THE largest outbreak in history of a highly contagious disease that causes patients to bleed to death from every orifice was confirmed yesterday on Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan.

At least 75 people have caught the disease so far and eight have died. An isolation ward screened off by barbed wire has been set up in the Pakistani city of Quetta, and an international appeal has been launched for help.

Evidence suggests the outbreak of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever emanates from within Afghanistan, raising fears of an epidemic if millions of refugees flee across the frontier into Pakistan.

CCHF has similar effects to the ebola virus. Both viruses damage arteries, veins and other blood vessels and lead to the eventual collapse of major organs.

As one doctor put it, a patient suffering from haemorrhagic fever "literally melts in front of your eyes".

At the Fatima Jinnah Chest and General Hospital in Quetta, capital of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, an isolation ward with eight treatment beds and two observation bays has been set up.

Nine-year-old Ismail Sadiq lay on one of the beds yesterday, his body wracked with fever and a wad of cotton wool stuffed into each nostril to stem the bleeding.

Outside members of his family sat anxiously in the shade of a tree. An elderly gentleman worked a string of worry beads through his fingers, but doctors had forbidden all visits.

The only people Ismail now sees are doctors and nurses wearing the complete "barrier nursing" outfit of sterilised hairnet, mask, gloves, gown and overshoes.

Another patient, a 65-year-old man, lay inert on his bed, with streams of dried blood on his chin, nose and tongue. His shirt was also stained heavily with blood.

Dr Akhlaq Hussain, the hospital's medical superintendent, said: "The first cases came in June. There were a number of deaths, but at first we did not know what was the cause."

A number of blood samples were sent to Pakistan's national virology testing centre in Islamabad. They were then sent to South Africa's National Institute of Virology in Johannesburg for confirmation.

Dr Hussain said: "When the results came back we knew we were dealing with Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever." He has compiled a list of all 75 cases, which involved refugees recently arrived from Afghanistan or people living close to the border.

The first known case of the disease was among Russian soldiers serving in the Crimea in 1944 and then among villagers living near the Congolese city of Kisangani in 1956. Not until 1969 were scientists able to isolate the single virus common to both.

Although there have been a number of cases since, the outbreaks have never been as large as the current one.

The doctor said: "We had our first case in Pakistan in the 1970s. It would seem there is a reservoir of the virus in Afghanistan and we are now worried about the possible effects of an influx of many new refugees.

"The virus is carried by domestic animals, and if they come in large numbers with large numbers of animals we can expect many more cases."

The authorities in Pakistan have appealed to the World Health Organisation for additional supplies to help deal with the outbreak, including storage facilities for clean blood plasma and white blood cells which can be used to replace those lost by patients.

The virus is widely distributed in the blood of sheep, cattle and other mammals across eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. It can be passed to man by a species of tick, Hyalomma marginatum, common in the same areas.

If caught in time, CCHF can be treated by replacing enough of the lost body fluids to allow the patient's own immune system to take over and kill the virus.