/ 10 August 1999

CONGO FEVER AT BAY

HEALTH officials said on Sunday that none of the 58 people who are being monitored following the death of a Pretoria man from Congo Fever on Thursday, has so far contracted the virus. Doctors took blood samples from those people at Akasia Clinic in Pretoria who came into contact with Hendrik Oosthuizen — including medical doctors, laboratory workers, laundry workers, friends, family and one hospital patient — but so far no one has been infected, Johan van der Heever, the deputy director for Disease Outbreak Response in Gauteng said. Oosthuizen, 26, was infected with Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever while on a hunting trip in the Northern Province. He returned to Pretoria and was admitted to Akasia Clinic in Pretoria North, where he died on Thursday night.