Rabeah: Four cases treated immediately JEDDAH – The confirmation that four persons admitted to hospital Tuesday have contracted the little-known “Al-Khumra” fever – the first appearance of the potentially fatal illness in Jeddah for nearly 10 years – has raised the concerns of the minister of health and experts in contagious diseases. The four cases, detected in residents of the north of the city Tuesday, were described by Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabeah Wednesday as “only individual cases which were immediately treated”. The four persons were admitted to hospital the same day as laboratory tests confirmed the diagnosis, and the Mayor's Office ordered that the zone around the houses where they lived be sprayed with pesticide. Dr. Tariq Madani, a contagious disease specialist from King Abdulaziz University, said that studies on the obscure virus are few, and that it still has no vaccination or cure. “The virus is more dangerous than Rift Valley Fever, and the authorities should move to combat it as quickly as possible before it gains strength,” Dr. Madani said. “This requires collaboration with university researchers from the ministries of Health, Agriculture and Municipal Affairs.” Dr. Madani said the virus manifested itself in high fever, inflammation of the liver and brain, and bleeding from the gums, nose, stomach, anus, womb, urinary tract or skin. “It is fatal for one in four,” Madani said. Animal contact “The way it passed on is still not entirely clear, but initial studies show that it can be passed on to humans from animals through direct contact, or through various types of mosquito as happens with Rift Valley Fever,” Madani said. “The first information on it when it appeared in Makkah around ten years ago showed that all the persons infected had had contact with cattle or lived close to one of the four main abattoirs in the city. None of the infected had been bitten by rodents commonly associated with viruses of a similar nature. According to the head of the Health and Environment Committee at Jeddah's Municipal Council, Dr. Hussein Al-Barr, a Chair has been set up at King Abdulaziz University in the name of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi to “study the virus and find ways to counter it”. But detailed knowledge remains scarce. Dr. Madani said there had been no real scientific investigations into the nature of virus anywhere in the world. “That's because it has not been isolated by scientists anywhere else in the world, and all that's been done are some gene-mapping studies and comparisons with viruses of the same type,” Madani said. The virus reportedly acquired its name in 1994 when four cases were discovered in the Al-Khumra District of Jeddah after it was initially thought that they had been infected with Dengue fever. No further cases of the Al-Khumra virus were recorded in Jeddah until the year 2000 when 20 persons were found to be infected. Again, all were residents of the Al-Khumra district in the south of Jeddah. In March of 2009, however, authorities in Najran announced four cases, and the Ministry of Health said the virus had been present – without disclosing the number of cases - in the region for several years, identifying “infected cattle” as the source. The ministry at the time described the symptoms of Al-Khumra as a “sudden fever leading to nervous disorder”, but reassured the public that there was “no cause for concern” as the virus had “only affected a small number of people and does not spread rapidly”. The father of one girl in Najran who caught the virus said she spent ten days in intensive care before being discharged, and locals said that authorities had for a year been trying to play down the threat.
