Mystery disease: 2 admitted

2008-10-11 14:10

Johannesburg - Two people were admitted to the Morning Medi-Clinic for closer monitoring in connection with viral haemorrhagic fever, the hospital said on Saturday.

One woman was admitted on Thursday evening and the second person, a nursing sister, was admitted on Friday morning, said Morningside Medi-Clinic spokesperson Melinda Pelser.

"We were monitoring their temperatures. There was a discrepancy in their temperatures and that is why we admitted them," said Pelser.

Pelser could not give more information about their condition because of patient confidentiality.

On September 12, a 36-year-old woman, Cecilia van Deventer, was airlifted from Zambia to the Morningside Medi-Clinic in Sandton. She was treated for tick bite fever and other potential infections, but died two days later.

A Zambian paramedic who accompanied her into the country died last week, and a nurse at the clinic died on Sunday.

On Friday morning the eight year-old son of the nursing sister who died and his 23 year-old nanny were discharged from hospital.

On Wednesday, a cleaning supervisor at Morningside Medi-Clinic who had been admitted to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on Monday with symptoms of viral haemorrhagic fever was discharged.

All three would continue to be monitored, said Pelser.

Pelser said anyone who showed a change in temperature was brought into the hospital for increased temperature monitoring over a 72-hour period.

"If there are discrepancies in the temperature monitoring done at home they are brought to the hospital for closer monitoring to see whether the temperature changes were abnormal."

Currently Morningside Medi-Clinic is monitoring 67 people. These people were outside of the hospital and every six hours their temperatures were taken for signs of change.

Gauteng health spokesperson Zanele Mngadi said on Saturday she was receiving continual updates from the outbreak response team.

On Friday, the World Health Organisation, said up to 144 people who had contact with the three people killed by the illness were being traced.

"One hundred and twenty one known contacts of the fatal cases are being traced in South Africa and 23 in Zambia."

Epidemiologists are still searching for the cause of the haemorrhagic fever.

- SAPA