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Hunting Virus XBELINDA BERESFORD | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Oct 12 2008 06:00 A virus new to humanity, or an old acquaintance dressed up in slightly new clothes, the disease that so far appears to have achieved a 100% kill rate in Johannesburg, is now up against the full might of humanity's scientific detectives. So far three people have died from the mysterious disease, which has retained its anonymity through an extensive first round of laboratory testing for viral haemorrhagic fevers. Based on the pattern of disease and a suspected tick bite on the first patient, the pathogen -- let...

Zambia: It's Not Ebola!The Times of Zambia (Ndola)8 October 2008THE woman from Zambia who died in South Africa from a mysterious disease was in fact afflicted by cerebral edema and multi-organ failure, putting to rest suspicions that she was hit by the deadly ebola, experts have confirmed.Five experts who carried out the investigations on two of the four deceased people revealed that the woman could have died from suspected viral infection from a tick bite that she incurred in Lusaka.Experts from Specialty Emergency Services (SES) Corpmed Medical Centre (CMC) and Wilderness Safari said that the first victim of the disease,...

Deadly virus not airborne Mass hysteria is not necessary in this caseDisease transmitted via bodily fluids THE deputy director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases has assured the public that there is no need to panic, despite the fact that four people have been killed by an unknown, highly contagious virus.Doctor Lucille Blumberg, who also heads up the NICD's epidemiology unit and consults to its special pathogens unit, referred to the death of Cecilia van Deventer, 36, as an "isolated case" and said test results were not yet available.But experts at the University of Stellenbosch believe the mystery virus...