Worker doesn't have fatal disease

2008-10-07 16:08

Johannesburg - A 51-year-old cleaning supervisor, who was admitted to Baragwanath Hospital displaying symptoms of an unknown illness that claimed three lives in South Africa, is now fine and will be discharged, doctors said on Tuesday.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases' Dr Lucille Blumberg said all blood tests for the woman had returned clear, and she would probably be discharged later on Tuesday.

One hundred and twenty one people who had had direct contact with the three people who died are currently under observation and are having their temperatures monitored every six hours for the next 21 days - the length of time, the doctors feel, that is the possible incubation period of the illness.

On September 12, a 36-year-old woman was airlifted from Zambia to the Morningside Medi-Clinic in Sandton. She was treated for tick-bite fever and other potential infections, but subsequently 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 Tuesday, Dr Nivesh Sewlall, the doctor treating the affected patients, said that since then six other people who might have had direct contact with the deceased had been admitted into hospital for observation, but four had already been discharged.

The 11-year-old son of a nurse that passed away, and his 23-year-old nanny, were still being kept in hospital although neither displayed any symptoms.

"He is fine, but it is a traumatic time and [keeping him in hospital] it's more for trauma counselling," said Sewlall.

His nanny had initially displayed a marginally high fever, but was now fine.

Sewlall and other medical officials held a news conference at the Morningside Medi-Clinic on Tuesday, because they said they wanted to dispel misconception and panic around the illness.

Intensive care specialist professor Guy Richards said: "The public at large are not at risk."

The doctors said only those who had had direct contact with the deceased, and only through bodily fluids such as stools, urine and blood, had any possibility of contracting the illness.

Medi-Clinic Gauteng marketing manager Melinda Pelser said: "This hospital is at no risk, this is where there is a huge misunderstanding."

Blumberg said there was also no outbreak of the illness in Zambia itself. Although doctors did not yet have a diagnosis of the illness, they knew it was a viral haemorrhagic fever, but the cause was not known.

A number of tests which could still take some time were being done to identify the cause.

However, all doctors said the treatment and management of the disease were not affected by not having a diagnosis.

- SAPA