Rwanda has placed a German student with Ebola-like symptoms in
isolation, and was waiting for test results checking for the deadly
tropical disease, the health ministry said late on Sunday. It comes as
a hostel in Hamburg was cordoned off in an Ebola scare.
“Samples from the suspected case have been sent for testing to an
international accredited laboratory for approval, results will be
available in 48 hours,” Rwanda’s health ministry said in a statement.
The patient is the first to be tested in Rwanda since the Ebola
outbreak in west Africa.
Minister of Health Agnes Binagwaho said the patient was a German
medical student, who had recently spent time in Liberia. He had a
fever and malaria but for “100 percent security” Rwanda had
quarantined him, until test results – expected within two days – were
back, she said.
An Ebola scare also broke out in Hamburg on Sunday after a 28-year-old
man from Sierra Leone was initially thought to be the first person in
Germany to be infected with the disease. He was taken to University
Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) after he complained of vomiting and
fever. He had been in Sierra Leone the week before but tests showed he
was not infected. His accomodation in Hamburg – a homeless hostel –
was cordoned off by police.
Ebola has claimed nearly 1,000 lives in west Africa in the worst
outbreak in four decades, prompting the World Health Organization last
week to declare the epidemic a global health emergency.
Like other nations across east Africa, Rwanda said it had put in place
measures against the deadly virus. “Surveillance systems and emergency
management systems have been established,” the health ministry said.
“Health workers have been trained across the country and are
vigilant.”
AFP
