News
HST Collects relevant news from a variety of sources, for your convenience. Select a story from below, or use our search feature to find stories of interest.

He is believed to have been infected with the virus, which is tick-borne, during the slaughter of an infected cow on the farm on which he worked on September 24.

He was transferred to Groote Schuur Hospital last Wednesday, and the Congo Fever diagnosis was confirmed last Friday.

Although more than 100 people have been affected by the outbreak, provincial health authorities who called an emergency media briefing following the man's death on Monday, are confident there is little likelihood of a spread.

A total 74 staff from Groote Schuur and the local emergency medical services, 49 people in Riversdale, and 28 staff at the George Hospital are among those who have been closely monitored since the Congo Fever diagnosis was confirmed, said Dr Keith Cloete, acting chief director of health programmes in the Western Cape .

Infectious diseases expert Professor Robin Wood explained that the longest recorded incubation period in respect of Congo Fever was 13 days. Hence, their policy was to keep everyone who may have come into contact with the virus under close observation for 14 days.

The group of people who had been in closest contact with the dead man, including four other people who participated in the slaughter of the cow, have now been ruled as being out of danger.

But Cloete said the observation period for the close to 100 medical staff who may have been in contact with the man would end only on October 21. Until then the staff were having their temperatures taken every morning and every evening, as well as being observed for any other symptoms of ill health.

Wood said people who were bitten by ticks while walking locally in the mountains were not at any risk of contracting Congo Fever. There was also no danger from eating meat, even the meat from an infected animal.

The virus was passed in blood to the person identified as the primary case usually through a cut in the skin, and during the slaughtering of an animal which had been bitten by an infected tick.

Because Congo Fever patients bled excessively, people who came in contact with the infected blood of the patient could be infected.

Wood said the average Congo fever death rate was around 30 percent.

This patient had bad prognostic signs. There were many organs involved and he was bleeding profusely, Wood said of the man who died on Monday after massive organ failure.

Wood explained that bleeding was the major cause of death of people with Congo Fever. The virus consumed the clotting factors in the body and treatment involved transfusions of blood and blood products, particularly platelets.

There was also an anti-viral drug that could be used, but only in early treatment.