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Published Date: 2012-05-28 16:53:38
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Rabies - South Africa (02): (NL) human ex Mozambique
Archive Number: 20120528.1147931
RABIES - SOUTH AFRICA (02): (KWAZULU-NATAL), HUMAN ex MOZAMBIQUE
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A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: Mon 28 May 2012
Source: Times Live [edited]
A patient from Underberg is the 1st South African to be treated with the Milwaukee protocol, an experimental course of treatment for acute rabies virus infection. The treatment, developed by US medical doctor Rodney Willough, involves putting the patient into a medically induced coma and administering antiviral drugs.
The victim's family spokesman, Grant Lindsay, yesterday [27 May 2012] confirmed that the patient was the 1st person in this country to receive the treatment. Lindsay said the 29-year-old patient, an extreme-sports fanatic and animal lover who studied wildlife science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, contracted rabies after he picked up a stray dog. He planned to give the hunting dog to a friend who hunts wild pigs. According to Lindsay, the dog did not bite the victim, but he suspects that the virus was passed through saliva when the dog licked his hands.
"The virus could have migrated from his veins to his nervous system through his hands. As a farmer, his hands had [open grazes] and that's how we suspect he got the virus," he said.
Lindsay said the experimental treatment was intended to protect the brain from being infected with the virus. "He got sick while he was on holiday in Mozambique. He was admitted to a Pietermaritzburg clinic 25 days ago. Initially, the diagnosis was unknown," said Lindsay.
He said there was a lot of local and international interest in Anderson's treatment. The experimental treatment yielded positive results in 2004 when Jeanna Giese, a US teenager, became the 1st of only 6 patients known to have survived symptomatic rabies without receiving the rabies vaccine. But some doctors have suggested that Giese recovered because she had contracted a weaker strain of the rabies virus.
On Saturday [26 May 2012], an 8-year-old child was buried after succumbing to rabies. He had been bitten by an infected family dog.
KwaZulu-Natal agriculture and environmental affairs MEC Meshack Radebe visited the patient's family. He said the government was concerned at the outbreak of rabies in the Midlands, particularly in the Bergville, Winterton and Loskop areas. He announced a massive campaign to raise awareness about rabies with a special focus on the Midlands. A sum of R 15 million [USD 1.8 million] from the World Health Organisation will be used for awareness and vaccination campaigns. Provincial agriculture and environmental affairs spokesman Jeffrey Zikhali said that 107 animals of the 350 tested for rabies in KwaZulu-Natal this year [2012] had tested positive for the virus.
[Byline: Thando Mgga]
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ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
[Previously, it was reported that the victim, a farmer and water-sportsman, had been holidaying in Mozambique when he became ill and had returned home. His condition worsened, and he was admitted to hospital on Wed 9 May 2012. The precise date of his contact with the rabid dog is not given, but it is clear that he did not receive anti-rabies prophylactic treatment at the time of his contact with the rabid animal. It seems likely that he is now being treated according to the Milwaukee protocol as a last resort.
The Milwaukee protocol is an experimental course of treatment of an acute infection of rabies in a human being. The treatment involves putting the patient into a chemically induced coma and administering antiviral drugs. It was developed and named by Dr. Rodney Willoughby, Jr., M.D., following the successful treatment of Jeanna Giese. Giese, a teenager from Wisconsin, became the 1st of only 6 patients known to have survived symptomatic rabies without receiving the rabies vaccine. The Milwaukee protocol is sometimes referred to as the "Wisconsin protocol."
A detailed description of the Milwaukee Protocol can be obtained at: http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFil.../1230105639592. - Mod.CP
A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1EPe.]
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