Israel Quarantines Nigerian Tourist Feared Infected With Ebola
Medical workers of the Liberian Red Cross, wearing a protective suit, carry the body of a victim of the Ebola virus in a bag in the small city of Banjol. Image by Getty Images
A Nigerian visiting Israel was quarantined in Jerusalem for fear she may have contracted the Ebola virus.
The patient, a tourist who works as a nurse in Nigeria and arrived in Israel several days ago, was admitted to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem with fever, Israel Radio reported on Friday. The hospital put the woman in quarantine as part of its protocol for treating patients feared to be infected with Ebola.
But a spokesperson for the Israeli Health Ministry said that “the probability that the woman has contracted Ebola is low.”
On Thursday, the World Health Organization said that more than 1,900 people have died in West Africa’s Ebola outbreak. There have been 3,500 confirmed or probable cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
More than 40 percent of the deaths have occurred in the last three weeks, the W.H.O. said, suggesting that the epidemic is fast outpacing efforts to control it, according to the BBC.
On Wednesday, the first British person to contract Ebola during the outbreak was discharged from a hospital after making a full recovery.
Symptoms of the virus, which spreads through bodily fluids, include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage. Fatality rate can reach 90 percent, though the current outbreak has mortality rate of about 55 percent.
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