Zambia on Ebola alert
2003-12-29 18:22
Lusaka - Zambian border officials were placed on alert after neighboring Zimbabwe announced that an Angolan trader may have died of the highly contagious Ebola virus, health officials said on Monday.
A team of Zambian health officials travelled on Monday to Victoria Falls, where the man died on Thursday, to get further information about the case, said Dr Victor Mukonka of the central board of health.
The Angolan man, who had travelled to Zimbabwe via Namibia and Botswana, was admitted to a Victoria Falls hospital on Wednesday with possible symptoms of the haemorrhagic fever.
He was isolated and died the following day, according to Zimbabwe news reports.
Samples from the victim were being sent to a South African laboratory for testing.
"Maybe it may turn out not to be Ebola at all," Mukonka said. "But we cannot take chances in cases of this nature."
In the meantime, immigration officers have been instructed to monitor the situation closely, he said.
Outbreak chances 'low'
Health officials in other neighbouring countries said they were watching developments, but did not immediately announce precautionary measures.
Ebola, one of the world's deadliest viral diseases, causes extensive internal bleeding and rapid death in up to 90% of those infected.
Doctors at the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases said the chances of an Ebola outbreak in southern Africa were low, and they urged calm.
"There is no need to panic or cancel trips," said Dr Lucille Blumberg.
She said doctors in Zimbabwe would be sending the institute a specimen for analysis within the next 24 hours.
"The clinical details are very sketchy - it could be malaria or another infection," she said.
"Ebola is low on our list of possibilities as it has not been seen this far south, but we have to exclude it."
Ebola has killed more than 1 000 people since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a region of Congo, according to the World Health Organisation.
An outbreak in a remote part of Republic of Congo has killed at least 29 people so far, the World Health Organisation has said.
- SAPA