Patient at Sunnybrook tests negative for Ebola
Posted March 18, 2015 4:22 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A person who recently travelled in West Africa has tested negative for Ebola after being assessed in a Toronto hospital.
The woman arrived at the hospital on Wednesday morning experiencing fever and nausea, which are early symptoms of Ebola. But they are also symptoms of many other ailments.
Dr. Andrew Simor, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s chief of microbiology, said the unidentified woman had been in Guinea.
But the hospital believed she left that country more than 21 days ago. The incubation period for Ebola — the time from infection to when symptoms become apparent — is between two to 21 days.
Simor said the woman was not acutely ill. While being assessed, she was treated in an isolation room by a small team of staff trained in delivering care while garbed in the protective gear needed to handle Ebola patients.
Canada has never had an Ebola case diagnosed within its borders.
But during the ongoing West African outbreak, a number of people suspected of having the disease have been tested — and ruled out — in various parts of the country.
The World Health Organization said Wednesday that since the outbreak started in late 2013, there have been 24,701 cases, mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Of those, 10,194 people have died.
