Ebola suspicion in Hamburg not confirmed

Ebola in Germany ?: First suspicion in Hamburg

08/10/2014

According to press reports, an African who shows Ebola symptoms is treated in a Hamburg clinic. Two days after his return from Sierra Leone, he was brought to the ward of the hospital with a fever and vomiting. Now there is the all-clear.

Patient is no longer on isolation ward
It seemed like there was the first Ebola case in Germany. As the „image“-Newspaper reported that a 28-year-old man from Freetown, Sierra Leone, was sent to a Hamburg hospital shortly after his return from Africa with fever and vomiting. Since the patient had an Ebola suspicion, he was transferred to the isolation ward of the University Hospital Eppendorf. However, this suspicion has not been confirmed, as it became known today. A spokesman for the clinic told the news agency dpa: „The man is since 7:10 clock no longer on the isolation ward.“

Dorm was locked
According to reports, the patient was taken from a dorm to a hospital on Saturday afternoon with an ambulance and then transferred to the university hospital late in the evening with an infectious ambulance. The dorm in which the man had been staying - a shelter mainly for homeless people in Hummelsbüttel - had been closed during the night. The spokesman of the Hamburg Health Authority had initially made no statement.

Man from Sierra Leone showed typical symptoms
Whether the man from Freetown came into contact with Ebola patients was unclear. Although the virus has not been detected in Germany since the outbreak of the current Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the suspicion was not uncommon since the patient came from a country affected by the disease and showed typical Ebola symptoms. In addition to the man's ailments - fever and vomiting - flu-like symptoms such as limb pain, headache, sore throat are typical initial symptoms of the infectious disease. Later in Ebola, patients experience violent diarrhea, blood in the stool and urine, and internal and external bleeding.

WHO has declared Ebola an international health emergency
In several West African countries, the disease has raged for months and has already claimed nearly 1,000 lives. As reported yesterday (Global Emergency Ebola - Low Danger in Europe), the World Health Organization (WHO) has now declared the Ebola epidemic an international health emergency. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, said in Geneva that it was essential to prevent the spread of Ebola to other parts of the world. In addition, the countries that are already affected would need a lot of help. (Ad)