Suspected Ebola fever case unconfirmed — Nyaho Clinic
The Nyaho Medical Centre has confirmed that an expatriate was transferred to its facility with symptoms suggestive of haemorrhagic fever, also known as Ebola fever.
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According to the centre, the patient was in an isolated unit with specialised attention from four staff of the hospital.
A statement signed by the Medical Director of the centre, Dr Victoria Fummey, said the expatriate was transferred to the centre by the West African Rescue Association (WARA) on July 6, 2014.
The medical centre then notified the National Disease Surveillance Unit, the National Public Health Unit and the Regional Public Health Unit after which blood samples were sent to the Noguchi Memorial Research Centre for confirmation.
The medical director assured the general public that the situation was under control and urged them to remain calm “as the disease is not airborne, and all necessary infection control measures are in place”.
The MoH statement
For its part, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has dismissed claims by a section of the general public that a recorded fever case at the Nyaho Medical Centre was the deadly Ebola fever.
It says the suspected fever case recorded at the clinic is yet to be confirmed.
However, as a precautionary measure, the ministry has put more public health personnel at the clinic and supplied the clinic with protective gowns.
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A statement issued by the ministry and signed by the Public Relations Officer, Mr Tony Goodman, said the ministry had directed the clinic to quarantine the said patient and the clinical staff who had been in contact with the patient at the place in order to contain any spread of the virus.
The ministry, the statement said, had also directed that the case remained at the Nyaho Clinic and treated until otherwise “while we wait for the laboratory result from the Noguchi Memorial Research Centre”.
The ministry called on the general public to remain calm “as we wait for the result from the blood sample taken for test at Noguchi”.
It also assured the general public that the situation was under control.
Rumours on social media
There were rumours on social media last week that an American suffering from Ebola fever had been flown into the country from Guinea and sent to the Nyaho Clinic.
Earlier in the year, there were similar rumours of suspected cases of Ebola fever in the country, but Noguchi, which is a leading biomedical research institute in the country, after performing blood tests, said the cases were not Ebola fever.