Patient at Ontario hospital with Ebola-like symptoms, but no diagnosis yet

Ontario hospital treating patient with Ebola-like symptoms

A hospital in Ontario, Canada, is testing a patient who recently traveled from Africa for Ebola, health officials announced on Friday.

The person was exhibiting symptoms that were common to Ebola as well as other diseases, like malaria, officials said. "Ontario's health care system is prepared to respond should an individual arrive with symptoms that could suggest a disease, such as Ebola," Dr. Graham Pollett, interim Chief Medical Officer of Health, said in a statement. "To date, there are no confirmed cases of Ebola in Ontario and the risk to Ontarians remains very low."

The Health Ministry did not specify where the patient was being treated or where they had come from — or even a gender — but the Ontario Star and the Associated Press reported that the person had recently arrived from Nigeria and was being isolated in Brampton Civic Hospital.

The statement stressed that Ontario is prepared to deal with emergencies: "With the experience and lessons learned from the SARS epidemic, our hospitals have sophisticated infection control systems and procedures to protect health providers, patients, and all Ontarians, and are fully equipped to deal with any potential cases of Ebola."

Ebola is a rare and severe disease that can infect both humans and non-human primates. The virus is contagious and is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood, sweat, urine, saliva and diarrhea from a sick person.

In its early stages Ebola has non-specific symptoms similar to the flu or malaria, which is common in parts of Africa. The virus causes symptoms including fever, vomiting, muscle pain and bleeding.

The latest Ebola outbreak in Africa is the largest and longest ever recorded for the disease, which has a death rate of about 50 per cent and has so far killed at least 961 people, according to the World Health Organization.

There have been false alarms about Ebola in places like Britain and Hong Kong.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is advising Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone due to the outbreak, but has issued a statement saying the risk of Ebola to Canada is very low.

It says travelers to Nigeria should practice special precautions such as avoiding direct contact with blood and other bodily fluids of people with Ebola virus or unknown illnesses, among other steps.

The World Health Organization said Friday that Africa's Ebola epidemic was a global health emergency and could continue spreading for months. The virus has killed nearly 1,000 people this year.