Skopje backtracks on diagnosis
October 10, 2014
On Friday, Macedonia's Health Ministry expressed doubt that a Briton who died Thursday had Ebola. Officials cautioned, however, that an official diagnosis would not come before the weekend.
"Considering the epidemiological exams conducted yesterday, the health authorities are getting closer to the view that there is no major probability of this being a case of Ebola," Dr. Jovanka Kostovska, of the ministry's commission for infectious diseases, told a news conference on Friday.
The ministry had earlier announced that "because of his serious health condition [when] he was admitted to the hospital, including vomiting and internal hemorrhage, as well as because of his sudden death, we believe he might have had symptoms of Ebola." Kostovska said that despite the update, officials would follow preventive measures recommended by the World Health Organization until a lab in Germany had completed its analysis of samples from the Briton, expected late Saturday at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Macedonian authorities quarantined 25 people from the hotel where the man had stayed, including a fellow Briton, along with another 10 from the hospital that admitted him, including the ambulance crew that had initially treated him. According to Kostovska, "they are all in good condition and with constant medical care ... but none of them shows any symptoms."
The man arrived in Macedonia from London on October 2, and friends of his did not believe that he had traveled to any of the West African countries affected by the Ebola virus. The current outbreak, the worst on record, has claimed nearly 3,900 lives of the more than 8,000 people infected since the start of the year, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
'Very low' risk
A Spanish nurse diagnosed as the first person to have caught Ebola on European soil remains in serious condition after respiratory failure. Officials have quarantined her and 14 others in Madrid.
On Friday afternoon, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tried to quell concerns about Ebola during a visit to the hospital: "The risk of Ebola propagating is very low," the daily newspaper El Pais quoted him as saying.
The nurse had worked as part of a team treating Spanish missionaries flown home after contracting Ebola in Liberia, and her infection prompted a rash of protests from health workers dissatisfied with hospital safety precautions. Similar protests have taken place across Spain.
Authorities are still investigating how the transmission took place, and EU organizations have issued harsh warnings about the need to follow protocol. The nurse said Thursday that she might have wiped her face after changing the diaper of a priest who ultimately died of Ebola.
Doctors have raised concerns that European officials have not adequately prepared for the outbreak's potential spreading to the continent.
mkg/sb (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)