THUNDER BAY -- A patient exhibiting signs of the Ebola virus who turned up last week at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre tested negative for the disease.
Mark Henderson, the hospital’s acting chief of staff, said the male patient arrived at the emergency department and informed staff he’d recently been traveling in West Africa, where more than 4,000 people have been killed by the potentially deadly disease.
Henderson said the patient was quickly isolated and every precaution was taken until the test results were returned from a lab in Winnipeg.
“He was isolated and put into a special room, and then transferred to ICU where we have special so-called negative pressure ventilation rooms, exactly for this kind of patient,” Henderson said.
It’s unlikely Thunder Bay will encounter a case of Ebola, despite some authorities at the World Health Organization saying the number of new cases could reach 10,000 a week as early as December.
“Luckily Thunder Bay is remote and you cannot get here directly by air, except through Toronto, essentially, or Winnipeg,” Henderson said.
“That’s one of the advantages of us living in Thunder Bay, as it would be very unlikely that we will see a case of Ebola here.”
It’s more plausible that larger centres, like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver would see cases, though it’s not out of the realm of possibility that it could crop up in Thunder Bay.
If a patient does show up, the hospital locally is prepared.
“Well, there is no specific treatment for Ebola, but we could certainly treat patients with flu-like symptoms, dehydration, that kind of thing,” Henderson said.
Should patient fit the criteria and see symptoms of the disease, the hospital recommends heading to the emergency department and identifying their concerns to staff, who will take immediate precautions.
