BackBrazil warns of first possible Ebola case as disease spreads
A man coming from Guinea who arrived in Brazil on 19 September was admitted to a hospital on Friday complaining of a fever
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Brasilia: Brazil has reported its first possible case of Ebola as the deadly virus spreads outside of Africa, according to the health ministry.
A man coming from Guinea who arrived in Brazil on 19 September was admitted to a hospital on Friday complaining of a fever and transferred to a Rio de Janeiro health facility on Saturday, health minister Arthur Chioro told reporters in Brasilia. The patient does not now have a fever and has not shown other symptoms of the disease such as hemorrhaging, diarrhea and vomiting, Chioro said, telling reporters later in the day the man said he didn’t have contact with the disease while in Guinea.
“While the risk of transmission of Ebola in our country may be low — very low — we can’t ignore the seriousness of the situation," Chioro said.
Global officials are stepping up measures to contain Ebola after the disease killed more than 4,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia this year. A Madrid hospital this week expanded its monitoring of people who may be at risk from contracting the illness after a nursing assistant became infected. The UK and the US said that they will screen passengers arriving from West Africa.
Officials have identified 64 people with whom the patient had contact and will monitor them, Chioro said. Those people have all been interviewed and are at low risk of contracting the disease, Jarbas Barbosa, secretary of health surveillance, told reporters in Brasilia.
National protocol
Brazilian authorities isolated the 47-year-old patient, who became ill while in the southern state of Parana, and followed national protocol, according to a health ministry statement. The man was flown to Rio de Janeiro in a plane provided by federal police. Health officials will have results of his blood tests by early Sunday afternoon.
Ebola has a fatality rate of about 50% and is transmitted by direct contact with a sick person’s blood or other bodily fluids. Early signs of the disease are fever and flu-like symptoms. Bloomberg
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