A Brazilian man who visited Guinea is being tested for Ebola and authorities have preventively isolated a public health unit where he first sought medical attention, Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Castro said yesterday.
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The minister said that all the appropriate protocols for these cases have been implemented, adding that Brazilian authorities have communicated information on the suspected case to the World Health Organization.
“The patient said he arrived on November 6 from Guinea, an African country where the Ebola epidemic started and where cases are still ongoing”. If the results were positive, this would be the first ever Ebola case in the country. All 69 contacts now being followed in Guinea are located in Kaliah and are scheduled to complete their 21-day follow-up period on 14 November.
The 46-year-old patient, whose identity was not released, was treated at a mobile clinic in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte and quarantined when he said he was having symptoms such as high fever, muscular pain and headache, according to an official communique. His symptoms included head and muscle aches.
Castro said that the man’s blood samples will be sent to a lab in Fiocruz for analysis. There was already a suspected case where the blood tests came back negative. “Until then, the patient will remain quarantined and will receive all medical assistance at the Evandro Chagas institute in Fiocruz”, he said.
The country had reported four cases over the last four weeks, and the WHO says health care workers are monitoring all their contacts for signs of the disease.
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The latest Ebola crisis has been the most catastrophic so far, killing more than 10,000 people in three Western African countries, including Sierra Leone and Liberia.
