The risk of the deadly ebola virus being found in the remains of a man who died in a hospital in Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls is quite low and people should not panic, a microbiologist involved with the investigation said on Monday.
This follows media reports that Zimbabwean health officials had asked a South African laboratory for help investigating the death of a cross-border trader in a hospital in the resort town on Christmas Day.
The trader had reportedly travelled through Angola, Namibia and Botswana before seeking treatment at the hospital on Christmas Eve.
”We have spoken to doctors in Zimbabwe and they will send us a specimen for analysis sometime today or tomorrow,” said Dr Lucille Blumberg of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
”That kind of specimen is very difficult to send through ordinary transport so we are making arrangements, but we should receive it in the next 24 hours.”
The Johannesburg-based high-security laboratory is often called on to assist African countries with viral haemorrhagic investigations and receives samples from all over the continent.
”The clinical details are very sketchy — it could be malaria or another infection. Ebola is low on our list of possibilities as it has not been seen so far south but we have to exclude it,” she said.
”Someone raised it as a possibility and because it is not clear where he has been it is important to exclude it. There is no need to panic or cancel trips. The chances are low,” she added.
According to the World Health Organisation, ebola haemorrhagic fever was first identified in a western equatorial province of Sudan and in a nearby region of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1976.
It is one of the most virulent viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50% to 90% of all clinically ill cases.
The source of the virus appears to be in the jungles of Africa and Asia, with several different forms being identified.
It is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen of infected people and has also occurred from handling ill or dead infected chimpanzees.
The incubation period is between two to 21 days and symptoms include the sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and a sore throat.
This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, limited kidney and liver functions, and internal and external bleeding, the World Health Organisation information sheet said.
It added that no specific treatment or vaccine exists and suspected cases should be isolated from other patients with strict barrier nursing techniques practised.
Blumberg said that the laboratory should have a first result within 48 hours of conducting the first analysis. — Sapa