Ebola ‘risk to Canadians is very low’

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This article was published 30/09/2014 (3493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Canadians who have travelled to West Africa should contact their doctor if they feel sick at all, the head of the Public Health Agency of Canada said today.

In the wake of the diagnosis of the first case of Ebola outside of Africa yesterday, in a patient in Dallas, TX, Dr. Gregory Taylor and Health Minister Rona Ambrose worked to reassure Canadians

Ebola does not pose a significant risk in Canada and the systems are in place to catch and isolate any cases that may arise.

“I want to reassure everyone the risk to Canadians is very low,” said Taylor, in a news conference in Banff, Alta., where Canada’s health ministers are meeting. “The Ebola virus does not spread easily from person to person like the flu.”

Ambrose and Taylor said the Canadian Border Services Agency is trained to identify sick passengers arriving in Canada, and to screen anyone whose travel history includes countries with Ebola. As well airlines and in-air staff are trained to identify ill passengers and a pilot will call ahead to warn a patient is ill before arriving. Quarantine officers, usually nurses, can board a plane to assess a patient if necessary, or assess patients as they arrive.

The Quarantine Act gives Canadian officials the authority to have someone immediately admitted to isolation for medical treatment, or to ask them to report to a medical practitioner within three days for an assessment.

Taylor said anyone who has been in affected areas with Ebola – currently Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – should seek medical attention immediately if they feel sick after arriving in Canada, and make sure to tell their practitioner they were just in West Africa.

“Our number one priority is to make sure Canadians are protected,” he said.

The patient in Texas flew to Dallas from Liberia Sept. 20. He flew to Dallas via Brussels, and did not fly through Canada, Ambrose said. The patient had no symptoms when he flew, which Taylor stressed means he was not contagious. Unlike other viruses, Ebola is only contagious when a person has symptoms, and then is only passed through direct contact with bodily fluids, not casual contact like the flu is spread.

The patient in Texas was sent home after he went to the hospital two days after he got sick, because the health workers did not ask him about his travel history. That is something Taylor said is critical to keeping Ebola cases isolated. He said public education through the media, and education of medical practitioners is a high priority for PHAC. All medical practitioners need to ask the travel history of patients who present with symptoms such as fever, chills, muscle ache, headache and sore throat. Those are the initial symptoms of Ebola.

Later symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and internal hemorrhaging.

Reports in the United States also say border agents are not properly screening passengers.

Ebola outbreaks can, and have been, contained if patients are isolated and known contacts tracked.

The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg is still the centerpiece of Canada’s infectious disease controls for diseases like Ebola. The lab can diagnose a positive Ebola case within three hours of receiving a sample. Right now the Winnipeg lab, and a provincial lab in Quebec are the only locations with capability to test for Ebola. Labs in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia will have the capability soon. Once they do have the capability, provincial labs can rule out Ebola, and if they get a positive result, the samples are then sent to Winnipeg for final confirmation.

Canada has donated 800 to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organization but they have not yet been shipped because the vaccines haven’t been tested on people yet, and if they cause any injury to a patient it would set the entire battle against Ebola backwards, said Taylor. Human trials are underway this fall and Taylor said he hopes by January the vaccines will be better understood.

In the meantime some of the vaccine is already in Geneva for use on health care workers who may fall ill after treating patients in West Africa. They can receive the vaccine if they consent and understand the risks, said Taylor.

There may also be some doses sent as precautions to hospitals in Canada which may end up receiving patients who contract Ebola and then return to Canada, said Taylor.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca