Crisis plan after Congo scare

2005-10-10 09:36

Millicent Merton

Cape Town - The Western Cape health department has implemented an emergency plan after a man from Heidelberg was diagnosed with Congo fever.

Under the emergency plan, all people who had been in contact with the man were identified within 12 hours of the diagnosis and were placed under observation.

Seven people, including the man's wife and son, who came into direct contact with him, were admitted to Riversdal Hospital for observation.

The family of the man, a farm worker from the Heidelberg district, asked that he not be named.

In isolation at Groote Schuur

The 46-year-old man was diagnosed with Congo fever on Friday afternoon. He has since been admitted to a special isolation ward at Groote Schuur Hospital where his condition was described as serious but stable.

Doctor Keith Cloete, acting chief director of health programmes for the Western Cape department of health, said the man was admitted to the hospital in Riversdal on Monday. He was transferred to George the next day and to Groote Schuur on Wednesday.

Jaco Streicher on the farm Waterkloof, where the man has been working since March last year, said doctors initially thought the man's kidneys had failed.

Uncertainty over contraction

Streicher said it is not yet clear how the man contracted Congo fever. The virus is normally spread through ticks.

"We work with livestock every day, but they did not find any marks on his body where a tick had bitten him."

Animal

The possibility that the farm worker was infected when he slaughtered an animal is being investigated.

According to Health24 one can contract Congo fever when you squash a contaminated tick with your finger while there is an open wound on your hand; if you come into contact with the blood of some mammals and ground bird species within three to seven days after they were bitten by an infected tick; or through wound contact with the blood, tissue or excretions from a Congo fever patient.

Four others admitted

Four other farm workers were admitted to the hospital for observation. Cloete said these men did not have any symptoms of the disease.

At least 77 other people from Riversdal and George who came into contact with the man are being monitored on a daily basis. Several other people at Groote Schuur Hospital are also being monitored for any signs of the disease.

It is the first time in more than four years that this widely feared disease has been diagnosed in the Western Cape. An employee of the Maitland abattoir was diagnosed with the virus in February 2001. This man was treated at Groote Schuur hospital and recovered completely.

Cloete said the province's guidelines for handling contagious diseases have since been changed. Under the new regulations, the temperature of people who came into contact with the patient is taken every day for 21 days. These people are checked for signs of fever, a cold or muscle pains. If a person contracts the disease, he or she starts bleeding within three days.

Cloete said people could not pass on the disease unless they were showing symptoms of the disease. The virus has an incubation period of between three and five days - 10 days at most.

- Die Burger