Feverish traveller in Myanmar has malaria not Ebola
The Ministry of Health has announced that the man who arrived at Yangon International Airport on August 19 suffering from fever has malaria, not Ebola, according to blood tests taken while he was under quarantine along with four travel companions.
The five were quarantined as a precaution to prevent the virus that has affected four nations in West Africa from reaching Myanmar.
The patient had returned from West Africa via Bangkok and was sent to Waibargi Infectious Disease Hospital’s intensive care after he was found to be suffering from fever and fatigue at immigration control.
“He was infected with malaria and is being treated for malaria. None of the four persons who returned with him were infected with Ebola, according to tests at the National Health Laboratory,” an official from ministry said, adding that they were still waiting for test results from a lab in India to completely rule out that the five people quarantined had been infected with the Ebola virus.
The National Health Laboratory tested blood samples on August 20 and found that the patient initially suspected of possibly being infected by Ebola was suffering from two malarial parasites: plasmodium falciparum and plasmodium vivax. Malaria is endemic to Western Africa as well as Southeast Asia.
According to protocols for Ebola containment established by the World Health Organisation the blood sample of the feverish traveler was sent to a laboratory in India to test for Ebola. The results of that test will be released by the health ministry.
The 22-year-old feverish patient had been working in West Africa for 13 months before he returned to Myanmar.
The Ministry of Health, Department of Health and Central Epidemiology Unit cooperated with the airline to ensure the jet used by the feverish patient was sterilised and that all airline and airport staff were not at risk of infection.
Ebola is most often fatal but the virus is very difficult to transmit, health experts say. Its transmission routes are similar to HIV/Aids and Hepatitis B. These viruses are neither airborne nor spread through touching. Bodily fluids must be exchanged to spread the Ebola virus from one person to another.
The most recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is the worst to date. It has sparked global panic due to its high death toll and the failure to contain it to its initial cluster of patients.
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