Re: UNDIAGNOSED FATALITIES - SOUTH AFRICA ex ZAMBIA: NOVEL ARENAVIRUS STRAIN (?)
Re: UNDIAGNOSED FATALITIES - SOUTH AFRICA ex ZAMBIA: NOVEL ARENAVIRUS STRAIN (?)
'I am very scared. What if I die?'
14 October 2008, 06:40
By Kanina Foss and Solly Maphumulo
Another nursing sister has contracted the haemorrhagic fever that has killed at least three other people.
She was admitted to Sandton's Morningside Medi-Clinic last week for closer observation and has now been diagnosed with the virus.
On Monday, Dr Lucille Blumberg of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said tests by the institute had confirmed on Sunday night the case of arenavirus infection.
Earlier on Sunday, the NICD and the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, US, released test results that classified the previously unidentified virus as a rodent-borne member of the arenavirus family, related to Lassa fever.
The infected sister attended to the second person who died, paramedic Hannes Els, and was placed on the list of people who had close contact with those who contracted the disease.
Their temperatures are being monitored daily.
On Friday, after showing changes in temperature, the nurse was admitted to the hospital and placed in an isolation ward.
Her condition is said to be stable, and she is being treated with ribavirin.
Blumberg said they didn't know how well ribavirin would work for the virus, because they didn't yet have a lot of information about the virus.
She said further tests were being done to find out more, and results would be available within two weeks.
The infected nursing sister's family had been placed on the list of contacts being monitored by Morningside. It now numbers 91 people.
A West Rand hospital previously said it was monitoring another 66.
Those on the list are being monitored for 21 days after their last close contact with an infected person.
Meanwhile, a second Morningside Clinic nursing sister was admitted on Monday after showing fluctuations in temperature. She is being closely monitored.
A male paramedic, admitted last week, is also under close observation. He is not thought to have the disease.
Three other people under out-of-hospital observation were admitted and discharged since the list was first established.
Experts say haemorrhagic fevers are passed between humans through contact with bodily fluids.
On Monday, a Gauteng department of health spokesperson said tests had confirmed that two of those who died had the virus - paramedic Els and Morningside Medi-Clinic nursing sister Gladys Mthembu.
Samples were not taken from the first person who died, Zambian tour operator Cecilia van Deventer. She is believed to be the index case, or first person infected with the virus.
The spokesperson said the results of tests for a fourth person who died, Morningside Medi-Clinic contract cleaner Maria Mokubung, were still awaited. These were expected before the end of the week.
Although Morningside officials said Mokubung was ill for months with another unrelated illness, her death is being treated as related to the others until tests prove otherwise.
Her funeral on Sunday was conducted as if she was contagious, and her body was placed in three plastic bags, a coffin and an outer layer of thick white plastic.
Mokubung cleaned the ICU where Van Deventer lay.
Now her colleagues are too scared to clean the isolation room where the ill nursing sisters are being treated.
One of the cleaners said: "I am no longer comfortable cleaning the wards, especially Section A. The two patients are there. I am very scared. What if I die? I am not going to enter that ward. It's too risky."
Said another: "All the sisters who were working at Section A were wearing gowns, but the cleaner was wearing normal clothes.
"We know that working there is dangerous, but there is not much we can do. The cleaner there was aware of the situation but could not say no."
Morningside spokesperson Melinda Pelser said there was no reason for cleaners or employees to be scared - provided they had no direct contact with the patients.
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