Ontario health officials say a patient is being assessed in hospital for possible infectious diseases, including Ebola virus, following recent travel to East Africa.
In a press release sent to Global News, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health said testing is being conducted “out of an abundance of caution” and consistent with established clinical protocols.
Officials emphasized that each one appropriate infection prevention and control measures have been implemented. “There are currently no confirmed cases of Ebola in Ontario,” the statement said.
On Wednesday, the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there are several aspects that “warrant serious concern concerning the potential for further spread and further deaths.”
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“Beyond the confirmed Ebola cases, there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths. We expect those numbers to maintain increasing, given the period of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected,” he said.
He said 51 cases have been confirmed in Congo’s northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, “although we all know the size of the epidemic is far larger.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola disease outbreak attributable to a rare virus in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday.
Public health authorities stress that Ebola doesn’t spread easily and that strict hospital protocols are designed to forestall transmission while investigations are underway.
–with files from Katie Scott
