WITH MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL AFRICANS FLOODING INTO AFRICA, HOW WILL FURTHER DEADLY OUTBREAKS OF HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER BE PREVENTED IN SOUTH AFRICA?
Oct 15 2008 - by Adriana Stuijt Nol_Stuijt@hotmail.com and JanHdeKlerk@gmail.com
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa. Inkatha Freedom Party opposition MP Dr Ruth Rabinowitz (tel 27 (0) 82 579 3698) warns that the recent deaths and monitoring of people exposed to a deadly viral haemorrhagic fever stemming from Zambia, highlights the need for much better border controls of people with severe illnesses.
She warned that the large public hospitals in South Africa all should have dedicated, closed-isolation wards to take care of such patients with potentially deadly diseases who are brought in from other (African) countries.
South Africa's witchdoctor culture permeates the public health system now...
They don't have these hermetically-sealed isolation wards right now: at the moment, until the diagnosis of such a suspected contagious infectious disease is actually established (which takes a number of days), such imported patients now are merely nursed in intensive care rooms adjacent to general intensive care facilities - with just the standard measures for infection control, with nurses, cleaning staff and family members in contact with such patients, she noted -- and that was just not good enough..
Mrs Cecilia van Deventer, 36, an Afrikaner-tour operator who lives on the outskirts of Lusaka, was rushed in with suspected tick-bite fever from Zambia on Sept 12 2008 and died within five days at Morningside Medi-Clinic in Sandton;
followed by her accompanying paramedic, the Afrikaner Hannes Els, 33, of Speciality Emergency Services in Lusaka, (whose condition was discovered purely by accident by a Morningside Mediclinic doctor); and the next contact to die was their South African nurse Gladys Mthembu, 34, of Westonaria. Still questionable whether she'd also died of the deadly virus was their ward-cleaner Maria Mokubung, 37, an HIV+ woman from Slovoville squatter camp -- who had scrubbed these infected patients' ward. This diagnosis remains unclear because of the ARV-medication she was taking when she died.
Dr Rabinowitz warned that the currrent measures now taken at the SA borders and at the hospitals very clearly were just not good enough -- because it had exposed nurses, cleaning staff, family members to these lethal haemorrhagic viruses - and that's why two medical staff who'd been in contact with the Zambian patient, had also died and some 121 people had to be monitored. She also slammed the 'lack of urgency by the government's health department in stopping the spread of this deadly virus.
INDEED: The trail of these highly infectious patients runs from super-rich Sandton right to an open ward with other patients at the Sir Albert Robinson hospital, through the overcrowded Slovo squatter camp, Leratong Hospital, the Johannesburg Academic hospital, the Baragwanath Hospital.It's all very well to tell the public 'not to panic...'"
For several days, Gauteng Department of Health was 'too busy' to sterilise the home-bedroom of the nurse who had died after she had tending the first patient who imported the disease.
"There should be far more stringent requirements at ports of entry for assessing the potential danger of the illnesses of foreigners. "And there should be dedicated infection control wards for suspected cases of highly contagious infections in major hospitals such as the Johannesburg and the Pretoria General hospitals.
"It is all very well to tell the pubic not to panic, but hardly fair to expect calm when there is a lack of secure knowledge of sufficient precautions being taken to protect nurses, hospital staff and family members from any possible contact with bodily fluids of those carrying deadly infectious viruses."http://www.who.int/csr/don/2008_10_10/en/index.html
The mystery haemorrhagic fever in SA could be a new form of arenavirus - found in the urine of infected wild mice -- but which had never been found as such a deadly disease in humans before.
- This was said by Dr Lucille Blumberg of South Africa's National Institute for Communicable diseases and the Department of Health on Sunday. "The causative agent of the disease... may be a rodent-borne arenavirus related to the lassa fever virus of West Africa," said Blumberg. The tests done by the NICD and the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA indicated that the disease 'seemed to be a kind of arenavirus' but they are not conclusive as to exactly which one - it may in fact be a new strain and more tests are needed.
Doesn't usually cause disease in humans - so why is it a killer in SA?
Arenaviruses cause chronic infections in multimammatic mice - a kind of wild mouse - who excrete the virus in their urine which can then contaminate human food or house dust. These are viruses similar to the lassa fever virus found in rodents in Africa, but except for in West Africa, have not been found to cause diseases in humans.
- This finding also does not explain why it was so infectious in human-to-human contact in the South African outbreak.
Therefore further tests still need to be done to find out whether this current strain is an undiscovered member of the arenavirus and what its distribution is.
- The World Health Organisation have dispatched teams to southern Africa to investigate the mystery virus from their Africa-regional office. http://www.sabcnews.com/world/other/0,2172,177891,00.html
Any travellers who had recently been to Zambia and are experiencing 'flu-like' symptoms are also being urged to contact dr. Chika Asomugha of the Gauteng health department at telephone 082 330 1490 to have themselves tested and monitored. Just don't panic... it's all just a precaution...
"All we know is that it is highly contagious. It is believed to be transmitted via drops of fluid, when one person coughs or sneezes or when someone encounters the bodily fluids of the infected person," said Ms Pelser of the Morningside Medi-Clinic... "It is serious enough to be careful. We feel compelled to warn people," said the spokeswoman of Morningside Medic-Clinic.
It's a rule of thumb among policemen and ambulance personnel in South Africa that whenever patients have such symptoms, they must be handled under strict barrier-nursing conditions, in total isolation, whether the tests were 'conclusive' or not. In the Northern Cape, there are standing instructions that all such suspected Congo-fever (from tick-bites) cases be taken to Kimberley Hospital at once, which has a sealed-off isolation unit and specialised staff trained for such cases.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/2177562/__Top_vrouwenbesnijdenis_Afrika__.html?p=1,1
Background Haemorrhagic fevers:
http://www.who.int/topics/haemorrhagic_fevers_viral/en/ http://www.who.int/csr/don/archive/country/zaf/en/ http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2405362,00.html
Prof. Margaretha Isaacson: New virus identified: Hepatitis E (HEV) Northern Namibia Outbreak 1983 among Angolan refugees:
http://www.ajtmh.org/cgi/reprint/62/5/619.pdf
Morningside Medic-Clinic:
http://www.morningsidemc.co.za/default.asp?menu=false&page=http://www.mediclinic.co.za/docsearch/docsearch.aspx
News reports:
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2405028,00.html http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/2118685/__Ziekenhuis_sluit_operatiekamers__.html
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20081007060254757C735421
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.0030144
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arenaviridae
1 Opinion(s):
Hello! Thanks for keeping up on this topic!
--- SuperSrain BioSecurity Blog
Post a Comment