Virus: WHO tracing 144 people

2008-10-10 20:02

Geneva - Up to 144 people who had been in contact with three people killed by a mysterious illness in southern Africa are being traced, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

A statement said that "121 known contacts of the fatal cases are being traced in South Africa and 23 in Zambia."

The organisation's spokesperson Fadela Chaib also told journalists in Geneva that 121 of those are already under observation, and that "all are doing well".

WHO epidemiologists have been hunting for the cause of the mysterious illness which killed 36-year-old Cecilia van Deventer as well as a paramedic and a nurse, she added.

The disease is believed to be a haemorrhagic fever, but "three haemorrhagic fevers have been ruled out - Ebola, Rift Valley and Lhasa. They are not the cause of the disease," said Chaib.

Van Deventer arrived in South Africa on September 12 and died two days later after being treated for what was believed to be tick-bite fever.

The medic who accompanied her, Hannes Els, 36, also from Zambia died two days later with flu-like symptoms.

Gladys Mthembu, a 34-year-old Morningside Medi-Clinic nurse who died a few days later.

- AFP