Ontario health officials say the patient is being evaluated in hospital for possible infectious diseases, including Ebola, after recently traveling to East Africa.
In a statement sent to Global News, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health said the tests are being conducted “out of an abundance of caution” and in line with established clinical protocols.
Officials confirmed that all appropriate infection prevention and control measures had been implemented. “There are currently no confirmed cases of Ebola in Ontario,” the statement said.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Wednesday that there are several factors that “require serious concern about the possibility of the disease spreading and more deaths.”
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He added: “Alongside the confirmed Ebola cases, there are approximately 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths. We expect these numbers to continue to increase, given the amount of time the virus had been circulating before the outbreak was detected.”
He added that 51 cases had been confirmed in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu in northern Congo, “although we know that the scale of the epidemic is much greater.”
The World Health Organization declared on Sunday that the Ebola outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and Uganda constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
Public health authorities stress that Ebola does not spread easily and that strict hospital protocols are designed to prevent transmission while investigations are underway.
– With files from Katie Scott
