A suspected Ebola patient who put a hospital in Scotland under lockdown has tested negative for the deadly illness.
Part of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow was closed off after the person presented at the Acute Receiving Unit at about 6 am on Tuesday.
After returning to the city from a country ravaged by Ebola, the patient allegedly sought medical assistance after experiencing concerning symptoms.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared a public health emergency of international concern due to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The QEUH unit was immediately closed to the public in order to reduce any possible harm to others. The patient was immediately confined for treatment and additional examination.
The alarm eventually subsided when tests for the extremely contagious illness came back negative.
A source told The National: ‘The person came to the Acute Receiving Unit, where people are sent by their GP or the health board’s 101 number to avoid having to present at accident and emergency. This was quickly shut down and sealed off from the rest of the hospital.
‘The person was assessed there and then taken elsewhere in the hospital. I believe they were put into confinement while the tests to establish if they have Ebola or something else are carried out.’
Another hospital worker told the Glasgow Times: ‘The mere mention of the word Ebola strikes panic into people. You think of it as a disease that happens elsewhere.
‘The hospital has strict protocols and procedures to deal with these types of rare occurrences, and everything seemed to be followed to a tee, but it is still a worry for those who were on duty at the time.’
Central Africa is presently wrestling with an Ebola outbreak, with about 1,300 confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a handful in Uganda.
There has also been one confirmed case in France.
About 360 people are confirmed to have perished from the current outbreak, which is the third-largest in history.
If verified, this would have been the first Ebola case in the UK in almost ten years.
Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of symptomatic individuals or contaminated objects.
A spokesperson for Public Health Scotland said: ‘Public Health Scotland (PHS) is aware that an individual in Scotland was tested for Ebola as a precautionary measure. The test result has now been received and is negative.
‘PHS and NHS boards across Scotland have well-established protocols for assessing and testing travellers arriving in the UK from areas affected by Ebola where necessary.
‘Where required, contact tracing will occur, and contacts may undergo clinical assessment and precautionary testing.
‘It is rare for Ebola cases to occur in returning travellers, but NHS Scotland has safe procedures in place for detecting and managing any such cases.
‘As such, the risk to the general public remains low.
‘The UKHSA Returning Workers Scheme (RWS), which aims to protect and monitor the health of those who may travel from the UK to affected areas for their work, has been activated.
‘Organisations deploying workers to affected areas where they may be exposed to Ebola through their work should register those workers with the scheme.
‘There are currently no confirmed cases of Ebola in Scotland.’
France confirmed its first case of Ebola last week after a doctor tested positive.
Health officials said the medic had returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The patient in mainland France was said to be in a stable condition but has been isolated to prevent the disease from spreading.
According to officials, there is little danger to the whole European population. In an attempt to find everybody who could have been exposed through contact with the doctor, contact tracing investigations are still in progress.
What they should be doing is preventing people from travelling from countries that have an epidemic.
This is madness; you can’t bring a plant into the UK from certain places because it could spread disease, but we let in people who have been to these places that have Ebola outbreaks without any checks.
If you attempt to bring a Rabbit into the UK, it has to be quarantined for 4 months, but humans are good to go and spread their diseases.
A month-long quarantine is required for anyone entering our nation from an Ebola-affected location, and this has just topped my day off nicely because it’s only a matter of time before every disease that has been eradicated, or was never in the UK, will soon become rampant.
And what about the others they were travelling with, in addition to the one who contracts the illness? Although it’s not the most contagious virus, there is still a chance of it spreading, and since viruses are frequently fatal, we shouldn’t be too complacent about them.
Malaria, TB, dengue, typhoid, and other infectious illnesses are brought back to the UK by people from high-risk nations, and they frequently enter packed waiting rooms while exhibiting symptoms. But the reason this happens isn’t “because the UK is too soft” or “because human rights stop us from screening people.” It’s because the system is designed in a way that makes this inevitable, and A&E ends up carrying the whole burden.
Our government is not blocking the channel hoppers, and not checking lorries that got them here, and it seems we are the only people in the world who have no human rights.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 