Mystery virus identified

2008-10-12 16:39

Johannesburg - The mystery viral haemorrhagic fever which killed three people in South Africa has been provisionally identified as an arenavirus, the National Institute for Communicable diseases and the Department of Health said on Sunday.

"The causative agent of the disease... may be a rodent-borne arenavirus related to the lassa fever virus of West Africa," said NICD's Dr Lucille Blumberg.

She said tests done by the NICD and the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, US indicated that the disease seemed to be a kind of arenavirus.

Arenaviruses cause chronic infections in multimammatic mice - a kind of wild mouse - who excrete the virus in their urine which can then contaminate human food or house dust.

More tests needed

Viruses similar to the lassa fever virus have been found in rodents in Africa, but other than in West Africa, have not been found to cause diseases in humans.

Therefore further tests still need to be done to find out whether this current strain is an undiscovered member of the arenavirus and what its distribution is.

Blumberg said a female nurse and a male paramedic were currently in isolation after having been in contact with those who previously died from the illness. They had shown symptoms of the disease.

'Highly suspect' patient

The paramedic has since been diagnosed with kidney stones and Blumberg said it was "less likely" that he had the virus.

The nurse is "highly suspect" and is receiving anti-viral medication.

She was presently stable, but Blumberg could not say how her condition was likely to progress.

- SAPA