A Canadian who recently visited Nigeria is being held in isolation at Brampton Civic Hospital in Ontario for showing symptoms of the Ebola Virus Disease.
According to a Canadian public health official, the patient was reported to be showing initial symptoms of Ebola which were similar to more common diseases, such as malaria.
Dr. Eileen de Villa of Peel Public Health told The Globe and Mail that “infection prevention and control measures” had been put in place at the hospital because a patient “with a recent travel history to Nigeria” had shown symptoms similar to the Ebola fever and other flu-like symptoms.
Dr. de Villa said she received information from her colleagues at Brampton Civic Hospital and representatives from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
She added that the hospital would be working with public health laboratories to confirm a diagnosis.
“Any subsequent actions will of course depend on what the ultimate diagnosis is,” she said.
The World Health Organisation has said clinical trials of a preventative vaccine for the Ebola virus, produced by British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, may begin next month and be made available by 2015.
There is currently no available cure or vaccine for the virus that causes the severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.
Source:Punch
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