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Congo Fever leaves 1 dead, 151 under monitoring in S. Africa
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http://www.100md.com 2005-10-11
xinhuanet |
JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- A total of 151 people in South Africa's Western Cape province were being monitored for symptoms of Congo Fever after the deadly virus claimed the life ofa local farmer on Monday.
While confirming the case of the contagious disease, local health officials said seven people who had close contact with the dead man had been discharged from observation at hospital.
The seven people, including the dead man's wife and son and four co-workers, were discharged after doctors felt that they were"significantly out of danger," the SAPA news agency reported.
The 46-year-old farm laborer from Riversdale, Western Cape, died of multiple organ failure on Monday, SAPA said, quoting Western Cape Health MEC Pierre Uys.
Uys said it was a single case at this moment and they have notified the national Department of Health.
Keith Cloete, acting chief of health programs in Western Cape, said the man who took ill on September 26, was admitted to Riversdale Hospital on October 3, and was transferred to George Hospital the next day.
He was then taken to Groote Schuur Hospital where the positive diagnosis was confirmed and he was moved into an isolation ward onOctober 7.
Immediately Congo Fever was diagnosed and 151 people who had come into contact with him were identified, said Cloete.
They are undergoing checks on morning and evening temperatures and the monitoring for symptoms suggestive of developing the illness, Cloete said.
Cloete said officials were working on the assumption that the farmer contracted the disease while slaughtering a cow on September 24.
Farmers in the region have been advised to ensure their animalswere free of ticks, which passed on the disease by biting people or animals, whose blood then carried the disease.
Information available on the South African government's websitesaid that the number of Congo Fever cases occurring annually in humans was "quite small" in South Africa, while animals were oftenaffected.
"The tick-borne hemorrhagic fever can be fatal in humans but affects animals less severely," it said. Enditem
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