"The death of three individuals and monitoring of approx 100 in South Africa for a viral haemorrhagic fever now assumed to be caused by an Arena virus, related to Lassa Fever, and stemming from Zambia, highlights the need for more effective border control of persons with severe illnesses entering our country. It also suggests that insufficiently stringent measures are adopted in hospitals admitting cases of unknown diagnosis from other countries."  

"Until the diagnosis of a highly contagious infectious disease is established, patients are nursed in Intensive Care rooms adjacent to general Intensive Care facilities and they are nursed with standard measures for infection control. Only once highly contagious forms of disease such as haemorrhagic fever are confirmed, which takes several days, are the requirements for barrier nursing enforced. This entails protective eye masks, long gloves, hair cover, shoe cover and use of long sleeve gowns. But for exposed nurses, cleaning staff or family members, the caution comes too late. The lack of urgency in dealing with the matter is also concerning. For several days, Gauteng Department of Health was too busy to sterilise the home bed room of the nurse who died, after tending the first patient who imported the disease."

"There should be more stringent requirements at ports of entry for assessing the potential danger of the illnesses of foreigners. There should also be dedicated infection control wards for suspected cases of highly contagious infections, in major hospitals such as the Charlotte Mxege in Johannesburg and the Pretoria General hospital. It is all very well to tell the pubic not to panic, but hardly fair to expect calm, when there is a lack of secure knowledge of sufficient precautions being taken to protect nurses, hospital staff and family members, from any possible contact with bodily fluids of those carrying deadly infectious viruses."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dr Ruth Rabinowitz M.P(MB BCh) 
IFP spokesperson on Health 

JHB: Tel: 011 802 1826  
       Fax: 011 804 4221 
C.T: Tel: 021 403 3061  
       Fax: 021 403 3334  

Cell: 082 579 3698