Australian in Trat under watch for Ebola
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Trat Hospital has been urged by the public health office to prepare to put a patient under investigation after a 47-year-old Australian man arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport from Congo on October 17 and was found to have a body temperature of 36.3 degrees C
The man has lived in Trat with his Thai wife for the past two years, so health authorities were advised to keep checking on him until November 5 – three weeks after he travelling out of a country “near the virus outbreak area”. The man had returned to Thailand after work at an oil-drilling base in Congo.
Meanwhile, the result of a test on a 68-year-old British man, who died in Phuket, will reveal if he had the Ebola virus. The man had recently visited Nigeria. Authorities are adopting a cautious approach despite Nigeria being declared free from Ebola on October 20.
The Briton, who died in a Patong condo a few days before his body was discovered on October 23, had flown into Phuket from Lagos on October 7, Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Narong Sahamethapat said.
The foreigner had fainted and was sent to a local hospital on October 15, he said. The doctor at the time found that he had a record of heart disease and his symptoms were not related to Ebola, hence he was treated accordingly and allowed to go home.
However, police found the Briton dead in his room on October 23, so the ministry was urged to probe the cause of his death. A health expert team from the central administration was sent to work with the Phuket Public Health Office to determine the cause of the man’s “not natural” death.
A blood sample from the deceased man was sent for an Ebola virus test to the Department of Medical Science and Chulalongkorn Hospital. The result was expected today.
Department of Disease Control chief Dr Sophon Mekthon said the British man’s body was kept at the ministry’s hospital and looked after as per international standards.
The department is also monitoring some 25 people, who had contact with the man, for any virus-related symptoms for the next 21 days, while the room in which the man lived was also sealed. His body would be sent for an autopsy only if the test for Ebola returns negative, he said.
Sophon confirmed strict screening of visitors from states with Ebola, with International Disease Control Stations for every mode of transport – land, air or sea. So far, 2,415 people have been screened, but no cases found, he added.
