Mystery illness kills four in South Africa , page 1

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Topic started on 8-10-2008 @ 04:00 PM by Shere Khaan

Mystery illness kills four in South Africa

ca.news.yahoo.com

Four people, two of them Zambians, have died in Johannesburg of a mystery flu-like illness, the health department spokesman said Monday.

"The initial patient, who was from Zambia, arrived in South Africa on September 12 and she died two days later after being treated for tick-bite fever," Fidel Hadebe told AFP.

"The (Zambian) medical personnel who accompanied her also died two days later after being treated for flu," Hadebe said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Related News Links:
news.xinhuanet.com

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 04:00 PM by Shere Khaan

I hope they work out what it is before it spreads. At first I thought a new strain of flu until I found the following article quoting it as a hemorrhagic fever:

Some 121 people under observation for unknown illness in S. Africa

Some 121 people who came into contact with three people who died of an unknown kind of viral hemorrhagic fever remain under observation although all appear fine, South African doctors said on Tuesday.

Twenty one days is the period doctors believe the illness could still move from exposure to incubation to manifestation.

That's a long incubation, I sincerely hope they contain this little gem.

ca.news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 04:31 PM by anotherdad

reply to post by Shere Khaan

That is a long incubation period. Really the lady in Africa over a 3 week period only came in to contact with 122 people.

Maybe this is start of the pandemic on the other doomsday threads.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 04:45 PM by deltaalphanovember

reply to post by Shere Khaan

Thanks for the post, I have already posted this here: www.abovetopsecret.com...'

Living in Johannesburg, I can tell you that this had quite a few people worried but it turns out that it may not be as serious or contagious as originally suspected.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 04:46 PM by jpm1602

I saw a thread earlier of 500 mountain gorillas dead of ebola. Perhaps it has mutated. Over twenty kids and teachers in our area have come down with mrsa in the last three weeks.

Should there be some kind of quarantine impose upon a country until these new and deadly virus's are identified?

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 04:48 PM by asmeone2

I've been saying that we are due for a plague.

That was my Oct. 7 prediction.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 04:55 PM by deltaalphanovember

reply to post by jpm1602

It was 5000 gorillas due of Ebolo (another thread I started, while doing research on Ebolo and Congo viruses). The illness in South Africa has been tentatively identified as the Congo Virus. The Ebolo is much much worse with a mortality rate of over 80%. The Congo virus is not nearly as bad. Of course this is all speculation until there has been a more in depth investigation.

Africa has regular occurrences of nasty diseases - nothing to do with the End of the World I am afraid. Unless you contract it, of course.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:03 PM by anotherdad

reply to post by asmeone2

I've seen your threads and fear you may be onto something. Might be my paranoya though as Chem/boi weapons scare me 10x's more than a bomb. I mean really a mass killer that can't be seen until it's to late.

Thanks for the add Delta, Love a local to Africa clearing the air. And your purple trees.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:04 PM by asmeone2

reply to post by anotherdad

I keep pluging it because I am actually beginning to see indications like this OP that that might not be too far from the truth. Africa is SUCH a hotbed of exotic diseases, which we have little to no capacity to treat.

And all it takes is one person getting on a plane...

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:06 PM by anotherdad

reply to post by asmeone2

Good thing suicide bombers are idiots.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:07 PM by Grey Magic

Thanks for the warning, I'll let the new guy at work unpack all the returned defects from Africa.

/sarcasm/cynicism off.

21 Days is indeed much, I hope the big things like cdc are on their way and checking all flight routes out of there since the last 35 days.

and I hope they find the root soon because it is important where it began.

I hope this will be nothing too serious but I don't expect to be.

it's still sad when people die anywhere while it isn't needed, if Africa was been helped more instead of plundered and teared apart by warlords it wouldn't be a breeding ground for new rare diseases that can evolve fast.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:10 PM by asmeone2

reply to post by Grey Magic

Not to diminish the problem but I don't think that the warlords are causing the new diseases. I think it's simply that many areas of Africa are still very closed ecosystems--there is little outside influence to stop the viruses from evolving.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:12 PM by jpm1602

Thank you for the correction delta. I was relying upon my steely sieve of a memory

Some correlation there would not be out of the question.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:19 PM by asmeone2

Originally posted by jpm1602
Thank you for the correction delta. I was relying upon my steely sieve of a memory
Some correlation there would not be out of the question.

It's okay.

From my independant studies of the truly deadly viruses I beleive that they have been isolated so that they have not had the time to evolve(yes, viruses do evolve, that is fact) to a sucessful model. Sucess in this case is a disease that will keep the "host" or infected person alive, at the same time allowing it to harbor the virus.

So something like Ebola, while sucessful in its high communicability, is ineffective in that it destroys the inhabited host.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:40 PM by jpm1602

Thanks for the stroking asmeone2. I guess my thing is if it evolves into such a virulent form that it does not care if it kills the host because of its innate abilitiy of virulency perhaps it is a non issue. The two caregivers also died?/became sick from proximity. The long latency really concerns me.
Nothing like bleeding out from all orifices and eyes to death. Reminds me of Clancy's 'The hot zone'.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:43 PM by asmeone2

Originally posted by jpm1602
Thanks for the stroking asmeone2. I guess my thing is if it evolves into such a virulent form that it does not care if it kills the host because of its innate abilitiy of virulency perhaps it is a non issue. The two caregivers also died?/became sick from proximity. The long latency really concerns me.
Nothing like bleeding out from all orifices and eyes to death. Reminds me of Clancy's 'The hot zone'.

Yes that incubation period does make it very dangerous--especially if it can be transmitted through air.

I suppose the only thing merciful about these diseases is that they tend to kill very quickly.

Richard Preston wrote "The Hot Zone" though.

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 05:51 PM by jpm1602

LOL. Corrected again asmeone2. You are too kind to me.

That was a great book though wasn't it? I think I am in the early stages of earliheimers. Knew that cow meat would catch up with me sooner or later.
Judge, I swear, it's the prions in my brain, really I'm good.

[edit on 10/8/2008 by jpm1602]

[edit on 10/8/2008 by jpm1602]

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 07:07 PM by asmeone2

Originally posted by jpm1602
LOL. Corrected again asmeone2. You are too kind to me.
That was a great book though wasn't it? I think I am in the early stages of earliheimers. Knew that cow meat would catch up with me sooner or later.
Judge, I swear, it's the prions in my brain, really I'm good.

Okay you've lost me with the earliheimer's reference. Is that like Creutzfed-Jacobs disease--that is the human version of Mad Cow Disease?

reply posted on 8-10-2008 @ 07:29 PM by MurrayTORONTO

I honestly thought this would have been common knowledge by now.. yet nobody I know has mentioned anything about it.. ive been watching it unfold for the past few days here:
hisz.rsoe.hu...
I'm surprised there's next to no threads on this since I've yet to see any news coverage on it.

They think it's VHF
"The National Health Department has issued a high alert following the deaths of three people in Gauteng. Unconfirmed tests indicate that the victims may have died of the fatal Viral Haemorrhagic Fever (VHF)."

Be sure to check out the 'situation updates' once you click each epidemic hazard picture.

Also be sure to scroll down on the main link I posted to see all sorts of scary stuff... like every single volcano at eruption status... (it's been like that for a week or so)