South Africa: Mystery hemorrhagic fever kills 3

GENEVA (AP) -- -- The U.N. health agency says it is investigating a mystery disease that killed three people in the South African city of Johannesburg.
The World Health Organization says the disease appears to be a form of hemorrhagic fever.
It says tests have proved negative for Ebola, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, Marburg fever and other main types of hemorrhagic fever.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl says the first death on Sept. 13 was a tour guide who had fallen ill in Zambia before being evacuated to South Africa. Two further deaths on Sept. 30 and Oct. 4. involved a paramedic and a nurse who treated the woman.
Hartl said Friday that 121 people are being monitored and WHO hopes to receive further test results by Sunday.

Courtesy CNN

Alarming news !! Thanks for sharing with us, dearie !!

Scary right?

When there are many diseases with no cure yet.. such new mysterious disease popping up..

Also, this one seems to be very contagious, the 2nd and 3rd victims where the ones who treated the 1st one

Hi

The virus has been provisionally identified. It seems it was carried by a rat/s.

Mystery virus traced to wild mouse
12 Oct 2008

Sapa

Johannesburg — The mystery viral haemorrhagic fever that has killed three people in South Africa has been provisionally identified as an arenavirus, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the Health Department said yesterday.

“The causative agent of the disease … may be a rodent-borne arenavirus related to the lassa fever virus of West Africa,” said the NICD’s Dr Lucille Blumberg.

She said tests done by the NICD and the Centres for Disease Control in the United States indicate that the disease is a kind of arenavirus.

Arenaviruses cause chronic infections in multimammatic mice. This kind of wild mouse excretes the virus in its urine, which can then contaminate human food or house dust.

Viruses similar to the lassa fever virus have been found in rodents in Africa, but beyond West Africa they have not been found to cause diseases in humans.

Therefore, further tests still need to be done to find out whether the current strain is an undiscovered form of the arenavirus and what its distribution is.

Blumberg said a female nurse and a male paramedic are in isolation after they had been in contact with patients who died from the illness.

The paramedic has since been diagnosed with kidney stones.

Blumberg said it is “less likely” the he has the virus.

The nurse is “highly suspect” and is receiving anti-viral medication, but is stable.
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Regards Neesha