Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government
UPDATE ON MONITORING OF EBOLA FEVER
Routine monitoring of all people known to have been exposed at some level of risk to the two Ebola fever patients treated in Johannesburg is continuing.
No additional cases of Ebola fever have been confirmed. But monitoring will be maintained at a meticulous level until the last contact clears the 21-day incubation period.
Marilyn Lahana, the Johannesburg nurse who became infected while nursing an Ebola patient from Gabon, is still in a serious but stable condition in the Johannesburg Hospital.
There has been a note of alarm in some media reports at the fact that a small number of contacts have undergone physical examination and blood tests at Rietfontein Hospital. We would like to clarify that such testing is a routine precaution and part of the procedure set up for comprehensive monitoring.
All contacts undergo twice-daily checks at the hospitals where they are employed. This includes taking of temperatures and checking by a health worker. The process is tracked by the central operations room coordinated by national and provincial Health Departments at Morningside Medi-Clinic.
If any listed contact has a raised temperature and reports a headache or feeling generally unwell, he or she would be referred to Rietfontein where a clinical examination and blood tests would be done. In some cases Rietfontein has admitted contacts briefly, in other cases it monitors on an outpatient basis.
A total of 41 people have been removed from the monitoring lists because the incubation period has elapsed for them. The list fluctuates, because names are sometimes added - especially as a result of new nurses coming on shift to nurse Mrs Lahana at Johannesburg Hospital.
Released by the Directorate for Health Promotion & Communications Gauteng Health Department Contact Person: Jo-Anne Colling (Tel: 082 574 5510)