The only indication that something is seriously wrong at the Fatima Jinnah Chest and General Hospital is a long, metal petrol barrel set amid a pile of dust and rubble behind barbed wire. Inside the container a small fire is burning mattresses, sheets, blankets and pillow cases soaked with blood - blood that contains a deadly virus that has surfaced in the cities of Pakistan.
Since June some 63 patients here have contracted the virus, which causes Crimean-Congo Haemmorrhagic Fever (CCHF), a gruesome disease that causes bleeding from the nostrils, gums and rectum, as well as internal bleeding. It is similar to the Ebola virus in that it causes major damage to internal organs. So far eight people have died.
The virus is generally transmitted to humans via ticks carried on livestock. But as a highly contagious blood-borne virus, it can also be transmitted via exchange of bodily fluids.
"We started seeing cases in June and we have been able to track all of them to Afghanistan," Dr Akhlaq Hussain, medical superintendent of the hospital, said. Seated in a mostly marble office, Dr Hussain takes a slip of paper and begins to draw a map leading to Quetta from Afghanistan. He methodically lists all the towns and villages that patients have come from in Afghanistan.
"It is a straight line," he said. "The Afghan refugees are travelling here with their animals and bringing this disease with them. It is very serious." Uncertain of the cause of the massive bleeding and deaths last June, Dr Hussain sent blood samples to the national virology testing centre in Islamabad. They then sent the samples to South Africa's National Institute of Virology for confirmation. Dr Hussain has contacted the World Health Organisation and asked for storage facilities for clean blood plasma.
The hospital has set up a 10-bed isolation ward. If the disease is caught early enough, there is treatment available with the anti-viral drug Ribavarine, along with antibiotics and blood coagulants.
But the disease can act so quickly that people cannot get treated in time. At 3 a.m. on Thursday Lal Mohammad (40) arrived at this hospital, reporting that he had had a fever for two to three days. He had just started bleeding on Wednesday. By 7:30 on Thursday morning he was dead.
"We are concerned that the strain is very virulent," Dr Hussain said. They wrapped his body in plastic sheeting and advised his family to bury or burn the remains.
Dr Hussain asks us to don "barrier" protection in order to visit the isolation ward, meaning we are clad in full surgical gown, face mask and head wrap. Cloth bags are placed over our shoes. He is taking no chances. Two medical workers in Quetta died in May and several surgeons have died from the disease worldwide since 1987.
In a community wracked by anxiety and fear over war, this latest development is only likely to spread further gloom.