Dutch man back from Nigeria has influenza - not Ebola
A 52-year-old Dutch national who had been under examination to see if he had the deadly Ebola virus has been given the all-clear, after blood tests revealed he just has the flu.
The man, who had a high fever after returning to Thailand on Wednesday from a business trip to Ebola-hit Nigeria, sought treatment at a private hospital and was immediately transferred to Rajvithi Hospital, which is set up to take care of suspected Ebola patients.
At a press conference yesterday, Dr Nareumol Sawanpanyalert of the Department of Medical Services said the man’s temperature had dropped to a stable 37 degrees Celsius.
A second blood test would be carried out on Monday and if the result again came back negative, doctors would consider releasing him, she said.
Department of Disease Control deputy director Dr Opas Kamkawinpong said 21 people who had close contact with the patient would no longer be under watch.
He affirmed that Thailand has no reports of Ebola patients. Aside from the Dutch man, a Guinean woman who underwent disease investigation procedures turned out to have malaria. Opas said some 1,100 travellers to Thailand from Ebola-hit countries had passed through Suvarnabhumi International Airport but none had suspicious symptoms.
He quoted a World Health Organisation report on Ebola-hit countries – Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria – that stated there had been 4,269 Ebola patients and 2,288 deaths as of last Saturday.
WHO and the USA-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention were delivering aid to those countries and had raised US$600 million (Bt19.3 billion) in donations. The situation should be under control in six to nine months, he said.
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