Johannesburg - South Africa's health department urged South Africans not to panic as the death toll from a highly contagious mystery disease with flu-like symptoms in Johannesburg reached four. The first patient to succumb to the disease that has centred around the private Morningside Medi-Clinic in the city's moneyed Sandton district was a Zambian woman.
The woman was critically ill on being brought to South Africa for treatment.
Despite being treated for tick-bite fever and other potential infections, she died. The Zambian paramedic who accompanied her to Johannesburg was later admitted to the same clinic with flu-like symptoms and also died.
At the weekend, a nurse who treated the first victim and a cleaner at the clinic became the third and fourth victims of the disease. The cleaner was reported to have been in bad health for some time.
The Department of Health said blood samples from the dead nurse were "not conclusive of any particular disease, including the viral haemorrhagic fevers."
Viral haemorrhagic fevers are a group of illnesses that occur in animals and humans that are characterized by bleeding disorders and fever.
Speaking on public radio, a health department spokesman said that although the disease was "highly contagious" it appeared to be only transmitted through body fluids and that he "didn't think there's any need for panic."
The department has warned anyone who has travelled to Zambia in the past month and suffers a high temperature and flu-like symptoms to immediately seek treatment.
