Congo fever victim cremated

2005-10-11 10:57

Cape Town - The body of a 46-year-old Riversdale man who died after contracting the deadly Congo fever virus has been cremated amid strict controls at Maitland crematorium, health officials confirmed on Tuesday.

Dr Keith Cloete, acting chief of health programmes in the Western Cape, said health officials had advised the family against having an open casket.

The ashes would be sent to the family and a memorial service held in Riversdale, he said.

The farm labourer succumbed to multiple organ failure on Monday at Groote Schuur hospital.

By Monday morning, none of the 151 people still under observation after coming into contact with him had developed symptoms suggestive of Congo fever, said Cloete.

However, one of seven people discharged from Riversdale hospital on Monday had been re-admitted with vomiting and diarrhoea.

The man was a co-worker of the labourer and had helped him slaughter a cow thought to have been infected with the virus after being bitten by a tick, a known carrier of Congo fever.

It was suspected that the labourer was infected when the cow's blood entered a cut on his body.

Cloete emphasised that the co-worker was not showing any signs of Congo fever - a haemorrhagic fever in which sufferers bleed from all bodily orifices including the pores of the skin.

"At this stage all things are clear," he said.

Cloete said the labourer's family were still deciding whether to release his name.

- SAPA