US military officials sent a medical team to a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan this week to take blood samples from members of an army unit after a soldier in the unit died from an Ebola-like virus.
Dr Jim Radike, an expert in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Role 3 Trauma Hospital at Kandahar Air Field, told The Washington Times that Sgt Robert David Gordon, 22, from River Falls, Ala, died on September 16 from what turned out to be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever after he was bitten by a tick.
The virus is transmitted by infected blood and can be carried by ticks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC.Dr Radike said the medical team “will be taking blood samples and the results may take several weeks to get back”.
He called it “a precautionary measure”.
The news comes as the Pentagon disclosed that it has sent 150,000 doses of vaccine for the H1N1 swine flu virus to Qatar for distribution to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. courtesy the washington times
via Daily Times – Leading News Resource of Pakistan – Rare virus poses threat to US troops.
