All it takes is a masty virus to upset everyone...all over again! Folks, don't you remember 1996, and the saga of the Gabonese doctor who came in with Ebola? Who lived, but infected a nurse, who died? Before it was established what it was, proper barrier nursing had been set in place; once it was known - quarantine and tracing of contacts, etc. Net result: one unfortunate casualty, and Jo'burg was safe. Which is what will happen here.

Trust the medical folk; they've done well so far.

i believe the fever is dangerous and i dont understand why the doctors say it is not air borne, i mean they have nt yet made a specific diagnosis. To all the nurses and health profetionals out there, my teacher always tells me treat every specimen as potentially infective, so you treat every patient as potenially infecive, look after your safety and those you around at all times.
To hospitals i think safety precautions should really be promoted at this critical period, cause you never know who could be a carrier.

It was definately not luck.. If it was luck than I am sceptical about South African Docters. Thanks goodness our dear Manto is no more Minister of Health.Imagine what she would have claimed out of this saga.May the families of the deceased find comfort and may those that are sick with this virus have a speedy recovery.

Anonymous from Pretoria

What i want to know is that our people are save from this disease because this disease is more securable. because we fear for our children this disease is painful.

Luck? Blind Luck? How can anybody say that this link was discovered by sheer luck? Let's be honest, this was divine inspiration from the one who is way above our understanding and any doctor's ability to diagnose. Let's give the credit where it is due, to the Almighty, who knows everything. And thank Him for the fact that He disclosed this information to somebody who had the knowledge to apply it to the situation.

It would seem that there are a bunch of ignorami out there who don't understand about workings in a hospital. Just give the doctors some 'slack' .. they work hard enough. Or put your loud mouths into action & just see what it's like to work in an emergency unit at one of our hospitals. Quite scary!!

i had tick bite fever some 15 years ago after a family picnic outing at shongweni dam. my G.P. a Dr. Cotterel diagnosed and treated me.no blood samples. i happen to phone my bro-in-law who was also at this outing for a casual chat & was told he was ill. when called at home ,he described his symptons and said his doctor was treating him for flu. it did'nt take me long to figure that he also had the same tick bite fever and i told him so . his doctor agreed to the new diagnosis. i kmew we definitely had the same when he visisted walking awkwardly as i had been as the nodes of the groin swell.the point i make--it was not necessary for blood samples to b taken

To everyone that flamed poster one, they are to a point correct. Every time I've been to the ER for whatever the reason, serious to minor things, It has been a requirement for blood samples to be taken. At the end of the day however, you would be testing for probables. The tests would be on the immediate symptoms and not what is happening inside / non visible as is the case with internal bleeding of this nature. I must be honest and say I am not a doctor, a concerned citizen more so. I think SA should investigate using some TAX/VAT money which I work hard for every month and give away freely, on mandatory screenings from people entering our country from other African countries considered high risk / plausible areas for such infection. Not everyone has to agree with me though ;)

It is a fallen world , the same as IT is not an exact science neither is medicine. Give the doctors a break. Sin has caused disease and much pain in the world. The biggest disease is sin and man's wickedness. Doctors have been given knowledge by God only.

When Van Deventer presented, there was no reason to do tests for viral haemorrhagic fevers as they thought it was tick bite fever. Are you doctors? What makes more sense you think its tick-bite fever so you test for rare viruses or do you test for tick-bite fever? Two completely different types of tests. Also since it takes at least ten days to get the test for tick-bite fever back and the patient sometimes doesn't last that long, you generally start to treat it based on the clinical picture. Additionally the link that lead to doctors believing it is a viral haemorrhaic fever was only made two weeks later after a second patient presented. And as stated in this article, the connection between the two patients was only made by chance. Be careful of criticising people unless you're an expert. Diagnoses are difficult enough and our doctors have reacted very well in this situation. Dr Blumberg is an incredably able infectious disease specialist and if she's involved with dealing with this outbreak you have no need to worry.