Bloemfontein - A Namibian farmer has been admitted to the Bloemfontein Medi-Clinic with Congo fever, Volksblad newspaper reported on Thursday.

Andries Hoffman, 44, from the Aroab district was admitted to the Medi-Clinic in Upington on Sunday, and airlifted to Bloemfontein on Monday.

Medi-Clinic Bloemfontein spokesperson Amanda Appelgryn said Hoffman was in the intensive care unit in isolation. Tests showed he had Congo fever.

"It is not yet known how he got sick. One gets infected either by a tick bite or handling an infected carcass."

Appelgryn said Hoffman was stable, but very sick.

what is congo fever??

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Wish him luck!

Saeed,
Thanks for the link for ddrhook!
I read it too.
Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF): Caused by a Nairovirus.
Wow, that is a wide spread virus, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa!
About 30% fatal.
Spread by tick bite and skinning of game animals, or sharps injuries in the hospital with exposure to the patient's blood!
Ribavirin is an antiviral drug that is helpful.
Also fluid and blood component replacement with close monitoring will help the patient over the hump to survival.

The article suggests that most birds are immune to it, but not the ostrich, and maybe the ostrich is a reservoir or carrier.
Infected by ticks.

That settles it, I shall admire Big Bird from afar, and spray my trouser legs with permethrin!

RIP
thanks I did not realize that Saeed's post was a link the disease.

I Just talked to Doc depending on the stain of hemorrhagic fever it could be up to 70/80% fatal. my prayers go out to this family

Marburg and Ebola viruses are worse than CCHF. A Marburg outbreak in Angola in 2005 was 80% to 90% fatal.
Marburg HF and Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever belong to filovirus family.
They are considered Class A bioterror weapon potential.

There might be more hope for our Namibian Farmer than if he had Ebola or Marburg.
But indeed it is all the stuff of nightmares.

Although not as bad as the diseases listed, there is an ongoing minor outbreak of dengue fever in the Keys of Florida.

Like RIP said, this farmer has the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, a (usually) tick-borne illness similiar to, but probably a bit worse than, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in the USA.
It's not the ferociously contagious and deadly Ebola or Marburg Hemorrhagic Fevers, which are also sometimes called "Congo Fevers."

Southern Farmer Has Congo Fever
Denver Kisting
23 July 2010



A NAMIBIAN farmer, Andries Hoffman, is seriously ill with Congo fever in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Bloemfontein Medi-Clinic in South Africa.

Laboratory results the past week confirmed that Hoffman (44), a cattle and sheep farmer in the Aroab district, has the highly contagious disease. He is being kept in isolation, where only one dedicated nurse attends to him.

According to the hospital's spokesperson, Amanda Appelgryn, Hoffman was flown to Bloemfontein from Upington on Monday. He had been admitted to a hospital in Upington on Sunday.

Apparently Hoffman had not been feeling well since the previous Sunday.

According to his daughter, Petro, her father recently fell off his horse and injured a rib. It was initially thought that it was because of this injury that he was not feeling well.

When her father did not get better, he decided to travel to Upington on Sunday, where he was admitted to the Medi-Clinic there, she said.

According to Appelgryn, Congo fever is highly contagious. The disease is spread to people through tick bites or contact with an infected carcass.

Appelgryn says it remains a mystery how Hoffman contracted the disease.

"He can't remember having been bitten by a tick. However, he did work with carcasses."

She points out, though, that certain ticks leave no marks when they bite and sometimes the bite does not hurt.

She says everyone who has been in close contact with Hoffman is being monitored. His wife, Louisa, is in Bloemfontein to support her husband although she is not allowed to have any contact with him.

The disease is spread from one person to another through the exchange of body fluids.

Petro yesterday told The Namibian that she and her younger brother, who stayed behind in Aroab, were taking their temperatures daily and reporting the readings to their mother.

At this stage, it does not seem that anyone else is infected.


Dr Jack Vries, chairperson of the Ministry of Health and Social Services' National Health Emergency Management Committee, yesterday said that they had not been informed about this Congo fever case.

He urged for more information to be provided to the ministry, which would then consider to "maybe send in a team" to the farm, Arabi, and assess the situation.

Vries emphasised that Congo fever is a "notifiable infection". This means that it needs to be reported to the health ministry to take steps to curb the spread of the disease.

Appelgryn says Congo fever at first feels like the flu. "But then the person becomes more ill and could also start bleeding."

She says this is the first case of the deadly disease admitted to the Bloemfontein hospital this year.

Congo Fever Patient Out of South Africa Hospital
Denver Kisting
2 August 2010


Although not back on his cattle and sheep farm yet, Namibia's Congo fever patient, Andries Hoffman, has been discharged from hospital.

Hoffman was discharged from the Bloemfontein Medi-Clinic on Friday. According to his wife, Louisa, they decided that Andries should stay behind in South Africa for the rest of the week to recuperate. This, she said, was also because she was still recovering from the flu, and "should there be a problem", he would be close to the doctors who had taken care of him the last two weeks.

Andries is staying with his sister in Hartswater in the Northern Cape. He is expected to return to his farm in the Aroab district at the end of the week. His wife returned to their farm, Arabi, on Saturday.

Louisa said she was happy to be back on the farm where their children, Petro and Jacobus, had kept the fort for the past fortnight. The children had to closely monitor their own health for the past two weeks to make sure that they had not contracted the deadly fever.


Last week, Louisa was also admitted to hospital after her temperature rose to over 38 degrees. It was feared that she also had the deadly disease. She was discharged a day later, when laboratory results showed she did not have Congo fever.

Earlier, Dr Jack Vries of the Ministry of Health and Social Services urged Namibians to remain calm but vigilant. He said it was the first outbreak of the disease, which closely resembles Rift Valley fever (RVF), in the country for the past eight years. Congo Fever, mainly spread by tick bites, is a notifiable disease.

The country also experienced an outbreak of RVF - the first since 1985 - this year. Last week, the United Nations (UN) praised Namibia for successfully fighting the outbreak without losing any human lives.