Patients with Ebola-like symptoms hospitalized in Ottawa and Belleville
Jordan Press
Ottawa Citizen
Published on: October 13, 2014Last Updated: October 13, 2014 3:50 PM EDT
Health officials in Ontario were awaiting test results Monday for two patients showing Ebola-like symptoms — one in Ottawa and another in Belleville.
While health officials downplayed any risk to the public, both patients remained in isolation as a precautionary measure.
National public health officials said Monday they are also aware of a case of a patient in isolation in an Edmonton hospital with Ebola-like symptoms.
The Ottawa patient — whose sex and age are being withheld by the hospital due to privacy considerations — was in isolation at The Ottawa Hospital’s General campus. Blood samples have been sent to National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg for testing. Results are expected later Monday.
The patient was put into isolation immediately upon arrival Sunday at the hospital, a spokeswoman for the facility said.
The patient would have had to show some signs of the disease — such as a cough or fever — and passed what the hospital calls a geography test showing they travelled through the regions in West Africa that have been affected by the Ebola outbreak. The patient was doing well and was under observation, the hospital said, adding there were no concerns for anyone visiting to the hospital Monday.
“All necessary precautions are being taken to ensure the safety of other patients, visitors and hospital staff,” Dr. Jonathan Angel, an infectious disease specialist at the hospital, said in a statement. “Strict infection prevention and control measures in Ontario hospitals means the risk of Ebola to other patients and health care workers is minimal.”
In Belleville, Ont., a man was in isolation at Belleville General Hospital after showing symptoms of the disease. The man had just returned from Africa, having a brief stopover in Sierra Leone where he didn’t leave the airport, and walked into the hospital’s emergency room early Monday morning.
Within four minutes of entering the hospital, the man was in isolation. Blood samples were sent to Winnipeg for testing, just as in the case in Ottawa, with results expected Tuesday or Wednesday.
Until the results are in, the man will stay in isolation.
Public health officials in that region said it was unlikely that the patient will test positive for Ebola and the risk to anyone else was “non-existent.”
“Given his symptoms and that he was not exposed to any ill people during a very short stopover in West Africa, it is extremely unlikely that he would test positive for Ebola. We expect he has any number of diseases common when people travel,” Dr. Dick Zoutman, chief of staff at Quinte Health Care and a noted infection control expert, said in a statement.
In August, a three-year-old girl in Gatineau tested negative for Ebola after showing symptoms upon returning from a visit to Sierra Leone.