UPDATE ON EBOLA FEVER SITUATION

Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government

November 22 1996

AFTERNOON UPDATE ON EBOLA FEVER SITUATION

The situation is essentially unchanged from this morning (when we held a full press conference) apart from the fact that the last isolated contact who had not yet been traced for monitoring purposes was tracked late this afternoon.

The number of confirmed cases has not increased from the two patients who were diagnosed during the course of last weekend.

• Nearly a week has elapsed since it was confirmed that Mrs Marilyn Lahana had contracted Ebola fever and she remains critically ill in the Johannesburg hospital. As mentioned earlier, she is dependent on life support systems because of the dysfunction various organs.
• The doctor from Gabon, who was treated and discharged from the Morningside Clinic before his illness was discovered to have been Ebola fever, is now back in his home country.

Although no additional cases have been confirmed during the week, comprehensive daily monitoring of all those considered to be at risk of contracting Ebola fever is being maintained.

The list of such contacts currently exceeds 300, and it fluctuates daily. People are removed from the list as they pass the 21-day incubation period; others are added as they assume nursing and other care functions in relation to Mrs Lahana.

The "contacts" who are monitored have all been exposed at some level to the blood or other body fluids of one of the two Ebola patients during the acute phase of their illness. Mostly, therefore, they are health workers.

A single contact out of the hundreds listed had been impossible to trace. However, she was contacted late this afternoon and immediately agreed to report at Morningside Clinic for the routine check. The monitoring of contacts is now considered to be comprehensive, with the list complete and a high level of cooperation from those people on the list.

Released by the Gauteng Health Department Contact: Jo-Anne Collinge Tel: 082 574 5510