Unknown disease in South Africa identified as arenavirus infection

On 12 September 2008, a tourist guide organising safari trips, residing in Lusaka, Zambia, was evacuated in a critical condition to Johannesburg, South Africa. She was admitted to a clinic where she died on 14 September about 10 days after the onset of symptoms. The symptoms included a prodromal phase with fever, myalgia, vomiting, diarrhoea, followed by rash, liver dysfunction and convulsions [1]. Cerebral oedema was detected on scan examination. No laboratory specimen was available for investigation.