Congo fever ‘under control’ in Overberg after death of worker

BRETT ADKINS Garden Route Bureau Chief

THE Western Cape health department said yesterday it was confident it had a Congo fever situation under control following the death from the deadly virus earlier this week of a Southern Cape farm labourer.

However, more than 150 health workers from several Western Cape hospitals who came into contact with the victim are still being monitored. This observation will continue until October 21.

Farm labourer Karel Kleynhans’s organs failed in Groote Schuur Hospital on Monday – two weeks after he first took ill and reported to a mobile clinic near Riversdale, where he worked on a farm.

Kleynhans, 46, apparently cut himself while slaughtering an infected cow on September 24 and fell ill two days later. He went to the mobile clinic for treatment on September 29 but was only admitted to Riversdale Hospital on October 3.

The next day he was transferred to George Hospital and then to Groote Schuur the following day, when he started bleeding.

A co-worker, who was among seven people discharged from a Riversdale hospital after being admitted following the diagnosis, has been re-admitted with vomiting and diarrhoea. However, a top health official said the worker was not showing any signs of Congo fever.

Although early symptoms are relatively mild, sufferers of Congo fever eventually begin bleeding from all orifices of the body including the pores of the skin if the virus is left untreated. There is a 30 per cent mortality rate.

Southern Cape farmers have meanwhile been advised to treat their animals for ticks which transmit the deadly disease. Health spokesman Herman van der Westhuizen said yesterday the department believed the case of the Riversdale farm worker was “very isolated”.

“The last case of Congo fever we had in the Western Cape was in 2001 when the patient, an abattoir worker, was treated at Groote Schuur and survived.”

Van der Westhuizen said the lengthy period between when the latest victim first took ill on September 26 and when a positive diagnosis was eventually confirmed and the patient moved into an isolation ward at Groote Schuur on October 7, meant time had run out.

He said one of the major difficulties lay with diagnosing the disease, the symptoms of which were a lot like flu.

“That difficulty is compounded when you’ve only had two cases of Congo fever in five years and health workers are treating so many people with flu symptoms all the time.”

There are 151 people who have been identified as having come into contact with Kleynhans – 74 staff members at Groote Schuur, four at the Heidelberg health centre, 28 people in the George area, and the rest from Riversdale.

Western Cape acting health programmes chief Dr Keith Cloete said yesterday that the 151 were not under observation in the strict sense of the word.

He said the Riversdale co-worker who had been re-admitted to hospital after being discharged was being treated for an illness “not related to Congo fever”.

Kleynhans’s body has meanwhile been cremated. A memorial service will be held in Riversdale.