Archive photo of OR Tambo Airport (Photo: Shutterstock)
The Department of Health is appealing for calm after two foreigners who are suspected to have contracted the hanta virus on a passenger ship in the Atlantic Ocean, have already entered South Africa ill.
The one, a British citizen, is in a critical condition in isolation in a private hospital in Sandton.
The second, a Dutch woman, died in Kempton Park, after she tried to catch a flight to the Netherlands at the OR Tambo international airport and then collapsed.
The department now says it is working with the provincial department of health in Gauteng and the National Institute for Infectious Diseases to “conduct contact tracing to stop the possible spread of the virus by identifying and monitoring those who may have been exposed to the infected persons”.
“In our opinion, there is no reason for the public to panic, because only two patients from the passenger ship were within our borders,” the department believes.
“The World Health Organization is coordinating steps with all affected islands and countries to limit further spread of the disease.”
Many people want to know how the patients ended up in South Africa in the first place. After all, the two were passengers of the MV Hondiusa passenger ship en route from Argentina to Cape Verde.
the MV Hondius on Sunday just outside the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. (Photo: AFP)
According to the department, the ship was carrying about 150 passengers and sailed past several islands, including the mainland of Antarctica, Falklands, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan, St. Helena and Ascension after which some passengers suddenly fell ill.
“While the ship was sailing past the South African coast, some of the passengers experienced serious health complications arising from what were initially thought to be severe acute respiratory infections.”
According to the department, the British citizen initially received medical treatment in Ascension, after becoming ill on board the ship. However, his condition did not improve and “this necessitated his medical evacuation to a South African private health facility in Sandton for further medical treatment”.
The man has since tested positive for hantavirus, a rare but potentially deadly virus that is mainly transmitted by rodents. “The patient is still in critical condition in isolation,” the health department confirmed on Monday.
However, the British man was not the first to board the MV Hondius not to get sick.
Maroela Media reported earlier that the very first patient was a 70-year-old man who was on his way from Ushuaia to St. Helena Island on board the ship suddenly fell ill.
The man had fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea and was taken to a hospital in St. Helena dead. His remains are still there awaiting repatriation to the Netherlands.
His wife (69) has since died in Kempton Park.
According to the department, the woman was taken to a nearby health facility in the vicinity of Kempton Park, after she collapsed at OR Tambo International Airport. She later died.
Her test results from the laboratory are still awaited, but it is suspected that she also contracted hanta virus.