Secrecy around Congo Haemorrhagic Fever patient Charles Marshall at Pretoria East Hospital. Three other cases of Congo fever have been confirmed in South Africa in 2013 to date, one in the North West Province and two in the Free State Province. All three patients survived. The viral infection has a 30 percent death rate and is highly infectious to nursing staff treating patients, who must always be treated in isolation, and with hospital air-conditioning turned to keep air inside the ward so that there is no danger of it spreading in aerosol bodily-fluids throughout the rest of the hospital. Nursing personnel and ambulance personnel usually are the first to get secondary infections from such primary patients.
Mr Marshall was first taken from the ZoekOp farm in Belfast, to the Midmed hospital in Middelburg on Thursday seven days ago -- after he showed symptoms of the fever - which is usually transmitted by a specific type of tick. ----------------------
GREAT SECRECY:
11 July 2013 Daleen Naude of the Observer newspaper in Middelburg reveals that Mr Charles Marshall was taken amidst 'great secrecy' from the Midmed Hospital where he was treated for Congo Fever, to the Pretoria East Hospital on Saturday - The journalist writes that 'reliable sources' said that Mr Marshall was treated at the Midmed Hospital from Thursday. "Initially he was admitted to ward Five of the Midmed Hospital. Shortly thereafter he was admitted to its intensive care unit.
Personnel were told that 'initial blood tests showed negative results' for the highly infectious haemorrhagic fever.
However, later on other patients were moved from Ward six to other wards after a personnel member on the ward adjacent to Mr Marshall's ward, 'showed symptoms of the disease." The journalist writes that early on Monday morning the Department of Health intervened after test results
came back indicating that Mr Marshall did suffer from the disease. His colleagues at the Zoekop Farm were alerted and asked to take blood tests twice a day.
It was reliably reported to Ms Naude that ambulance personnel who had taken Mr Marshall from Belfast to Midmed and later transferred him to Pretoria also have their blood tested twice daily.A friend of one of the ambulance personnel was very angry, she said on Facebook:"I am angry with Midmed. You are there to save people's lives and not to endanger them."That also counts for their colleagues in Police, the ambulance services and the fire department. Thanks to your pathetic service three of them are Midmed manager Hennie Viljoen 'didn't want to comment' on Monday."I am busy drawing up a report,' he explained.The personnel continue to worry: "Ward Six has been emptied for the patient's isolation.All the nurses on Ward Five, Six, Intensive Care and Casualty departments were exposed to him - as well as all the patients.'"We know that two nurses also were directly exposed to body-fluids'.
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Press statement 8 July : Congo Fever Confirmed in Charles Marshall: (Mrs Marshall had already confirmed that he had Congo Fever on her Facebook page on July 5 2013: "A press release from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed a case of Congo fever in Belfast, Mpumalanga -08 July 2013 Daleen Naude The farmer was treated in isolation in a Middelburg hospital and then transferred to a Pretoria hospital for further care.The diagnosis was confirmed at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg on Friday. "The patient is responding well to treatment."As is routine, close contacts of the patient will be monitored for 14 days. "Casual contact with a patient with Congo fever poses no risk. "No secondary cases have been reported to date. Crimen-Congo haemorrhagic fever or “Congo fever” is well- described in South Africa although it is uncommon, with limited cases confirmed each year, mainly in persons working in the agriculture sector. The virus is transmitted to humans by specific ticks, “Bontpoot ticks”, or through handling of blood of infected animals during slaughtering or similar processes.While livestock are infected through the ticks that feed on them the animals do not suffer any illness and will be immune to subsequent infections. There is no risk to people through handling of meat products or through consuming meat as the virus dies very quickly after the animal has been slaughtered. Three other cases of Congo fever have been confirmed in South Africa in 2013 to date, one in the North West Province and two in the Free State Province. All three patients survived.
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http://www.looklocal.co.za/looklocal/content/en/middelburg/middelburg-news-general?oid=7600140&sn=Detail&pid=4979897&Congo-fever-confirmed
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Translated from Afrikaans article written by Rustenburg journalist Daleen Naude:
July 11 2013; "A woman who was sitting next to the ( positively identified ) Congo Fever patient in the emergency ward of the Mediclinic, wrote on the "Taking Hands Facebook page:: "Saw the report on front page about the guy with that ugly fever thing. I sat next to the the guy when he was brought in. It was bad, with blood all over the place. I felt sorry for THEM. "The man sat next to me for a while until they moved him to the bandaging room. I now am sitting here with bad headaches and pain all over my body. What do you think? Could I have been infected. Do you think I should mention this to the doctor"."Several persons commented and she did go to the doctor".
http://www.looklocal.co.za/looklocal/content/en/middelburg/middelburg-news-general?oid=7610157&sn=Detail&pid=4979897&Vrou-sit-langs-Kongokoors-man
https://www.facebook.com/taking.handsmiddelburg
July 11 2013: Mr Charles Marshall, Congo Fever patient: in isolation at Pretoria East Hospital:
http://www.looklocal.co.za/looklocal/content/en/middelburg/middelburg-news-general?oid=7610122&sn=Detail&pid=4979897&Kongokoors--Man-steeds-in-hospitaal
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Background on Crimean-Congo Fever in South Africa: "Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus was isolated for the first time in South Africa in February 1981, from the blood of a 13-year-old boy who died in Johannesburg after attending a camp in a nature reserve in the western Transvaal. The Virus was isolated from 21/120 pools of questing ticks from the nature reserve, the infected species being Hyalomma marginatum rufipes and H. truncatum. Virus was also isolated from 4/38 pools of partially engorged ticks and other ectoparasites collected off hosts, the infected species being H.m. rufipes, H. truncatum and Rhipicephalus evertsi. Antibodies were found in the sera of 5/74 humans, 8/26 wild vertebrates, 74/270 sheep, and 109/170 cattle from the reserve and surrounding farms. Antibodies were also found in 28/200 hares from various locations in the country. It was concluded that the virus is widely prevalent in South Africa, but the full medical and veterinary significance of its presence has yet to be determined.
Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a widespread tick-borne viral disease, a zoonosis of domestic animals and wild animals, that may affect humans.
The pathogenic virus, especially common in East and West Africa, is a member of the Bunyaviridae family of RNA viruses.
Clinical infections are commonly severe in infected humans, with a 30% mortality rate.
Outbreaks of illness are usually attributable to handling infected animals or people.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6418019
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Experimental infection of ostriches with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus.
Swanepoel R, Leman PA, Burt FJ, Jardine J, Verwoerd DJ, Capua I, Brückner GK, Burger WP.-- National Institute for Virology and Department of Virology, University of the Witwatersrand, Sandringham, South Africa.
"Following the occurrence of an outbreak of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) among workers at an ostrich abattoir in South Africa in 1996, nine susceptible young ostriches were infected subcutaneously with the virus in order to study the nature of the infection which they undergo. The ostriches developed viraemia which was demonstrable on days 1-4 following infection, with a maximum intensity of 4.0 log10 mouse intracerebral LD50/ml being recorded on day 2 in 1 of the birds. Virus was detectable in visceral organs such as spleen, liver and kidney up to day 5 post-inoculation, 1 day after it could no longer be found in blood. No infective virus was detected in samples of muscle, but viral nucleic acid was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in muscle from a bird sacrificed on day 3 following infection. It was concluded that the occurrence of infection in ostriches at abattoirs could be prevented by keeping the birds free of ticks for 14 days before slaughter.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9825796
Medicare private hospital, Rustenburg, South Africa:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rustenburg-Medicare-Private-Hospital/192677047450482?fref=ts![]()
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