Mystery S.Africa killer disease may be Congo fever

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A mystery disease that has killed three people in South Africa and put medical authorities on high alert may be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a health official said on Tuesday.

africa.reuters.com...

This has got a lot of people worried here. Currently they suspect it is not Ebola, but they have not diagnosed it yet. If its Ebola, we could be in for a little trouble over the next few days as they isolate and track down people who were in contact with all the affected people.

This has now caused 4 deaths and a 5th is very ill: allafrica.com...

He said the third victim was a nurse based at the clinic who had attended to the first patient. Reports indicate that the driver of the ambulance that ferried the patient from Lanseria Airport to Morningside was also in a critical condition.

[edit on 7-10-2008 by deltaalphanovember]

For those of you that are interested:

CCHF Link


Good thing this illness isn't found in the United States.....

Latest update, the Government is working with WHO:

Government was also working with the World Health Organisation and the United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to access their global expertise in dealing with outbreak responses. The CDC had undertaken to expedite the processing of samples to ensure test results were made available as quickly as possible, he said. An Emergency Medical Services hotline (011-564-2083) had been established to deal with enquiries. Health care workers were being trained to deal with patients showing symptoms of viral haemorrhagic fevers, and Port Health Services were being strengthened to deal with any situation, as were members of the Border Control Operational Co-ordinating Committee.

news.iafrica.com...

So far everything seems to be contained. All people who were in contact with the affected (approximately 120 people) are being closely monitored.

Outbreaks always scare me, doesn't matter where they are at.

I didn't know this was caused by a Tick though, interesting.

With that in mind, it kind of surprises me there isn't more outbreaks of CCHF in these areas.

reply to post by Grailkeeper


Ticks are nasty critters ... I have had tick bite fever and it was not pleasant. However, I doubt this was actual tick bite fever ... perhaps something else that has found a new host in the tick. If congo fever and ebola are able to find new vectors such as birds, ticks etc. then there will be hell to pay.
I remember the concern in the early 90's when people thought that the malaria mosquito (anopheles) or any other mosquito may actually be able to transmit HIV ... luckily it was proven not to be the case.

Update:

13 October 2008 -- The results of tests conducted at the Special Pathogens Unit, National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) of the National Health Laboratory Service in Johannesburg, and at the Special Pathogens and Infectious Disease Pathology branches of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA, provide preliminary evidence that the causative agent of the disease which has resulted in the recent deaths of 3 people from Zambia and South Africa, is a virus from the Arenaviridae family.

Another nurse has become ill as well.
Full Story

Update

The death of a Morningside Medi-Clinic cleaner has been confirmed as being linked to viral haemorrhagic fever.

Full Story

It looks like Morningside Mediclinic is reluctant to admit the cleaner died as a result of the arenavirus (because she was already very sick from something else).

Morningside Medi-Clinic spokesperson Melinda Pelser said they had not received any official notification that Mokubung had been infected with the arenavirus.

In my opinion, this is a very dangerous game to play.

The virus appears to have claimed a new victim - a South African businessman who died in Rio De Janeiro.

Brazilian media reported officials as saying he may have been infected when he was a patient at a hospital in South Africa where four people died from a new strain of arenavirus, which also includes the germ that causes Lassa fever.

Full Story

South African authorities had said in October that the virus had been contained - if this man died from the same virus, then it we may have a bigger problem than what was admitted. Possibly a cover-up to avoid panic?
It may, however, just be a coincidence, we will just have to wait and see.