Man dies of Congo fever

2006-12-21 23:48

Johannesburg - A 26-year-old man died of Congo fever in the Kimberley hospital on Thursday, the Northern Cape health department said.

Spokesperson Shelly Fielding said the man's condition deteriorated rapidly on Thursday afternoon.

The man, a Prieska resident, was admitted to the hospital on Saturday with a temperature, bloody nose and nausea.

He was bitten on his shoulder three days earlier by a hyalomma tick, she said.

Another ten people who came into contact with the man were under surveillance in the hospital for signs of the haemorrhagic fever.

They included seven hospital and laboratory staff and three members of the man's family. None had displayed symptoms so far, but the department was monitoring the situation, Fielding said.

Area 'prone to the disease'

In November a diamond miner was diagnosed with Congo fever also in the Northern Cape.

At the time provincial medical director, Dr Dion Theys, said the area was prone to the tick-borne viral disease.

In April a Kimberley resident on holiday in KwaZulu-Natal was admitted to hospital with Congo fever and a woman from Petrusburg died of the illness in January.

In 2005, 158 people were quarantined after they were exposed to a farm worker who died from Congo fever in the Western Cape.

Humans can become infected by being bitten by a tick or by coming into contact with blood or tissue of an infected human or animal.

Symptoms of Congo fever include high fever, muscular pain, flu-like symptoms and eventually bleeding from various bodily orifices.

- SAPA