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JOHANNESBURG-A mystery disease that has killed three people in South Africa and put medical authorities on high alert may be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a health official said on Tuesday."We suspect that it may be Congo hemorrhagic fever but we have not made a diagnosis yet," Frew Benson, the South African Health Department's deputy director of communicable diseases, told Reuters. South African health officials said they were closely monitoring the illness, which causes external and internal bleeding, but called on the public not to panic. There were no signs it was airborne.Officials said on Tuesday they were observing a total of 111 people who had come into contact with the deceased patients."These are mostly people who may have had specific high risk contact with the patients. They are not admitted to hospital but are having their temperatures checked every six hours," Dr Nivesh Sewlall, who treated the first patient who died from the disease, told reporters at a press conference.South African authorities were due to send blood samples to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Tuesday, Benson said. The tests would take a number of days.The first fatality from the mystery disease was a patient from Zambia flown to South Africa for treatment. A paramedic who accompanied her later died from the same symptoms, health authorities said. A third person also died from the illness.A cleaner at Johannesburg's Morningside Clinic who was suspected of contracting the disease died of an unrelated condition, said the hospital's spokeswoman, Melinda Pelser.CCHF, which causes death in around 30 percent of hospitalized patients, is carried by domestic animals and can be transmitted by ticks. It is found in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia.To read more go to:
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