The condition of a 46-year-old Southern Cape farm labourer hospitalised with Congo fever was deteriorating on Monday morning, said Western Cape health official Dr Keith Cloete.
The unnamed man, a farm labourer from the Riversdale area, was admitted to Groote Schuur hospital on October 5 after being diagnosed with the potentially deadly disease.
He has been receiving intensive care in an isolation ward, where his condition has been described up to now as critical but stable.
Health department spokesperson Faiza Steyn said seven of his family members and friends, including his wife and children, have been admitted to Riversdale hospital for observation.
”Those people that are under observation have not shown any signs of the virus,” said Steyn.
They will, however, be kept in quarantine at the hospital for 21 days.
All the health workers who have come into contact with the man are also being monitored.
Cloete, who is the province’s acting chief director of health programmes, said the normal transmission route for Congo fever is through tick bites.
Humans can be infected either by being bitten directly, or by coming into contact with infected cattle during slaughtering — the presumed source of infection of the labourer, who worked on a stock farm between Swellendam and Heidelberg.
Cloete said the health department is working closely with the Southern Cape state veterinarian to raise farmers’ awareness of the need to keep livestock tick-free.
It would be of no benefit to try to identify ”the specific tick” responsible for the outbreak.
People can also contract the disease by coming into contact with Congo fever patients. — Sapa