13 October 2008
RENOWNED American televangelist TD Jakes who was expected in Zambia and was scheduled to officiate at the Africa Global Summit has postponed his coming for fear of a mysterious disease that was reported last week to have killed some people.
Efforts by summit organisers to reassure Bishop Jakes and his team through the ministry of Health, Foreign Affairs and American embassy in Zambia that there was no such a disease in the country proved futile.
According to a statement released by the summit organisers in Lusaka yesterday, the decision by Bishop Jakes and his team to postpone their trip to Zambia was as a result of concerns regarding a disease they understood to have originated from Zambia.
"Please, take this as official notification by the African Global Summit planning team for the postponement of the 2008 Africa Global Summit with Bishop Jakes, which was scheduled to take place today at Mulungushi International Conference Centre.
"This decision was made by Bishop Jakes and his team because of their concerns regarding a disease they understood to have originated in Zambia," the statement reads.
The organisers apologised for the inconvenience and for missing the opportunity the country could have received from the ministry of Bishop Jakes.
The statement appealed to people who bought tickets for the event to take the documents back to where they were purchased for refund.
While in the country, Bishop Jakes was expected to pray for the Zambian presidential aspirants ahead of the October by-election.
Experts recently said a 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.
Five experts who carried out 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, Corpmed Medical Centre and Wilderness Safari said that the first victim of the disease that had so far claimed four lives owned horses and attended polo matches in Lusaka.
The woman is known to have walked barefoot most of the time and travelled within Africa frequently without seeking medical attention.
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