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Bill Delaney: Ebola scare in Canada

Bill Delaney

February 7, 2001
Web posted at: 4:13 p.m. EST (2113 GMT)

Bill Delaney is CNN's Boston bureau chief.

Q: What is this woman's nationality, and how did she arrive in Canada?

Delaney: What we have had confirmed by a Canadian national health official is only that she is African. She is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. She had come to Canada via New York over the weekend up to Toronto and then had gone the hour's drive from Toronto to Hamilton, Ontario to visit two friends in Hamilton. She did not show any symptoms, by the way, of any illness until she arrived in Hamilton. Doctors say that's very good news for anyone who may have had contact with her before she got to Hamilton because Ebola is a disease which is not contagious until it manifests symptoms. The two people she had come to visit are apparently at some risk, but we have no more information on their status; but they could have come in contact with their friend in a manner that could be dangerous.

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Would the Canadian public health system be able to handle an Ebola outbreak?
 
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CNN's Elizabeth Cohen has more on the possible Ebola case in Canada

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Q: Are the Canadian and United States public health systems capable of dealing with an outbreak of Ebola?

Delaney: Actually for the first time Canada's put into effect its emergency plan for coping with a tropical disease like Ebola. There are now severe precautions being taken by all personnel going anywhere near this woman, including for example, as many as 8 check points before a hospital employee, doctor or nurse, can get near the woman. And of course everyone will be fully gowned with masks and even reportedly shields when they care for the victim. So those precautions are in place for the first time ever in Canada. Both U.S. and Canada do have contingency plans because of the fear that something like this could happen.

Q: How is Ebola transmitted? What is the greatest threat to the spread of this disease?

Delaney: Ebola is not something you can get in the air if someone sneezes, for example. It is only contagious if someone comes in contact with a victim's bodily fluids, and that is not known whether this is the case with the woman's two friends. It's important to point out that health officials say there is little or no risk to the general public. Ebola, again, is not an airborn virus. It can only be spread via direct bodily contact with someone's infected fluids, or it can be contracted by an infected needle.

The woman was admitted to the emergency room at Henderson General Sunday night. She spent 18 hours in the emergency room before being moved into isolation. As many as 20 hospital employees are being monitored because they came in contact with the woman. All of them, however, are still performing their usual routines. Doctors say unless they display symptoms of Ebola or any other disease, flu-like symptoms doctors say is how it would start, there's no reason to believe any of these hospital personnel are in danger. A spokesperson for the union that represents many of these hospital employees has expressed concern, however, because some of the hospital personnel say they may have had contact with the woman's fluids before there was concern about this tropical infection.

Q: Has this situation caused undue alarm and publicity, or might it be considered a good thing to consider the possibility of such a threat?

Delaney: Health officials have been very insistent to stress that there's no danger to the public at large. People we've spoken to here in Hamilton are not expressing any sense of panic, just concern that something like this could be even considered a possiblity in the community they live in, but most do seem now to be aware that this is not a disease that's now somehow in the air. It is not something people now need feel threatened by unless they were to come in direct contact with the possible victim. On the other hand, there is no doubt and people have told us, a greater sense of vulnerability that someone could arrive quite legally, of course, in Canada, even potentially with such an horrific disease.



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RELATED SITES:
CDC: Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever
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Institute for Molecular Virology: Ebola Outbreaks

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