Deputy health minister Dr Molefi Sefularo has confirmed that a 45 year old patient was admitted to a mine hospital on February 26 with minor symptoms of what was suspected to be Congo fever and he died a day later. Only on March 4 it was confirmed that the patient had been infected with RVF. The health department reported that the six other patients displaying mild symptoms of the RVF were under observation.

According to the World Health Organisation RVF is a disease that mostly affects animals but has the capacity to infect humans. Infection could cause severe disease in both animals and humans even leading to death.

Mostly livestock in the central Free State (Lejweleputswa District, Bultfontein area) and the Northern Cape were affected by the outbreak.  

Selufaro said the outbreak was under control and did not constitute a crisis.   He said the national and provincial outbreak response teams in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) were responding to the outbreak.

‘€œWe have good surveillance systems in place to determine the cause, notify, control and manage the outbreak, working closely with our partners the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and National Health Laboratory Services,’€ he said.                                                                                              

How people are infected

–                   Most transmission to humans occurs through direct or indirect contact with blood or organs of an infected animal. Humans can be infected through the handling of human tissue during slaughtering or butchering or handling births, veterinary procedures, or from the disposal of carcasses or fetuses. Risk groups including herders, farmers, slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians are therefore at higher risk of infection

–                   Infection can also occur through inoculation via a wound with an infected knife or contact with broken skin or through inhalation of aerosols produces during the slaughter of infected animals.

–                   There is some evidence that people can also be infected through drinking unpasteurised or uncooked milk of infected animals.

–                   Bites from infected mosquitoes, commonly Aedes mosquito, have also resulted in human infections.

–                   Transmission is also possible through blood feeding flies.

–                   There is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission of RVF. No infection has been reported among health care workers when standard infection control had been applied.

Symptoms:

–                   It takes up to two to six days to develop symptoms for RVF

–                   Those infected can either develop detectable or mild symptoms of the disease in the form of a feverish syndrome with sudden onset flu-like fever, muscle pain, joint pain and a headache.

–                   Some patients develop neck stiffness, sensitivity to light, loss of appetite and vomiting in patients with the disease. In early stages the infection might be mistaken for meningitis.

–                   Symptoms normally last between four and seven days.

How can it be treated?

–                   As most human cases of RVF are relatively mild and of short duration, no specific treatment is required for these patients. For the more severe cases, the predominant treatment is general supportive therapy.

–                   An inactivated vaccine has been developed for human use. However, this vaccine is not licensed and is not commercially available. It has been used experimentally to protect veterinary and laboratory personnel at high risk of exposure to RVF. Other candidate vaccines are under investigation

For more information of the RVF visit: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs207/en/