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Brazilian health authorities transfer the man suspected of having contracted Ebola to Rio de Janeiro (photo: Vanderlei Faria / SECOM Cascavel Pr/Fotospúblicas)
In a press conference this morning, Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich informed that Argentina is “on alert” over Ebola. Local doctors have also developed a method to identify cases of the virus within 24 hours.
“The Health Ministry has established an epidemiological alert over Ebola, and different mechanisms for the detection of cases have been triggered,” said Capitanich, adding that the alert works mainly for people entering the country by air, although “Argentina does not have direct flights with affected countries or neighbouring ones.”
The alert system, which “follows the directives of the World Health Organisation (WHO)” includes “human resources, technology, and reference health centres” to detect and evaluate potential cases of people infected with the virus. Three hospitals in Buenos Aires are prepared to receive Ebola patients: “Hospital Néstor Kirchner in Florencio Varela for adults, paediatric hospital Juan Garrahan for children, and the Central Military Hospital for security and defence forces working in Africa,” specified Deputy Health Minister Jaime Lazovski. Each province will also establish their own reference hospitals.
The Health Ministry also announced the implementation of an Ebola detection mechanism developed at the Malbrán Institute, a research centre under the ministry.
“Argentina is the first country in Latin America to have a diagnostic [tool] for Ebola and through a WHO reference centre we confirmed that the technique works, since we got positive results for samples that contained the virus’ RNA,” said Health Minister Juan Manzur. This method, which was tested with infected genetic material sent by the WHO, “can confirm or rule out suspected cases in under 24 hours,” explained Lazovski.
The Deputy Minister also praised the mechanisms already in place to detect the entry of suspected cases into the country, saying that “the alert system has worked very well so far. It was activated immediately.” He was referring to the five cases of people who arrived from Nigeria -four Argentines and one Chinese citizen- with a fever, and which turned out to be “false alerts”, as they were not infected.
Suspicion in Brazil
The announcements come as neighbouring Brazil deals with a potential case of Ebola. Forty-seven-year-old Souleymane Bah arrived in São Paulo on 19th September on a flight coming from Conakri, in his native Guinea. On 23rd September, he requested political asylum in Dionisio Cerqueira, state of Santa Catarina, which shares a border with the Argentine province of Misiones.
It has been reported that, on the way from São Paulo to Dionisio Cerqueira, Bah may have entered Argentine territory. Misiones’ Health Minister, Oscar Herrera Ahuad, said: “We are working on that information which we obtained through a statement issued by the Brazilian press. However, the patient’s route has not yet been confirmed. Everything indicates he entered the province of Misiones.”
In response, the provincial government initiated a prevention protocol. “We’re going to look at the route the patient took,” explained Herrera Ahuad, “the contact he had with people, we’ll go over the contagion symptoms. We will carry out an epidemiologic watch if it’s determined that the patient entered the province. We will ask for information from all the custom and migration offices.”
Immigration authorities, however, indicated that they have no records of the patient entering the country. Immigration Director Martín Arias Duval said on Twitter this morning: “Immigration does not have any records of the person allegedly infected that the media are talking about today.” He later added: “To prevent Ebola: follow the advice of the health authorities. Provoking fear or mistrust does not prevent Ebola, nor does it cure it.”
On Wednesday, Bah went to a hospital in the state of Parana with a fever. As he is still within the incubation period for the virus, he was treated according to the international protocols for Ebola and sent by plane to the National Institute for Infectious Diseases Evandro Chagas in Rio de Janeiro. He is bring treated as a “highly suspicious case” while tests are carried out to determine whether he is infected.
The post Argentina on Ebola Alert as Suspected Case Analysed in Brazil appeared first on The Argentina Independent.