Ebola? Patient in Berlin on isolation ward

Ebola suspicion: patient in Berlin on isolation ward

04/01/2015

At the Berlin Charité, an employee of a relief organization is currently being treated with suspected Ebola. The patient was a member of a South Korean team at a relief mission in Sierra Leone, where he was injured by a needle. The case was considered urgent by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Helper had treated highly infectious patients
A member of a South Korean treatment team was flown to Berlin on a special aircraft from Sierra Leone. The news agency dpa reports that Ebola is suspected after the patient has been injured by an injection. The employee of a relief organization (gender and age have not been reported) had treated highly infectious people in the West African country. It is still unclear whether the affected person has really been infected with the deadly infectious disease. The patient is currently being treated at the special isolation ward of the Charité in Virchow-Klinikum.

WHO takes over the costs
Berlin health senator Mario Czaja (CDU) shared the „Berlin morning mail“ According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the case was considered urgent. According to the clinic, the costs for the patient are covered by the WHO. As the senior physician of the ward for highly infectious diseases, Frank Bergmann, announced, a blood test provides reliable information only when Ebola symptoms show. These include fever, diarrhea, headache, nausea and vomiting, as well as internal and external bleeding. The incubation period can be up to three weeks.

Three Ebola infected in Germany
So far, according to the dpa three Ebola infected were flown to Germany and treated. Two of them survived, a UN employee from Africa died in Leipzig. In other European countries, too, people who have been infected with the dangerous virus have been treated in recent months. A positive news came recently from the south of Europe: the first Ebola patient in Italy is healed. The 50-year-old doctor had also been infected with an aid operation - also in Sierra Leone - and was now released after more than a month of treatment from a clinic in Rome. The doctor stated that he wanted to return to West Africa to help further. (Ad)