Patient admitted to BGH with Ebola-like symptoms

Update: Monday 4:52 pm

A man checked himself into Belleville General Hospital at 3 a.m on Monday morning complaining of fever and diarrhoea. He had recently travelled from Sierra Leone—a West African country currently grappling with an outbreak of the Ebola virus.

Within five minutes of his arrival to the Belleville hospital, the patient was isolated and tested for Ebola. The results of that test will not be known until late Monday or early Tuesday.

“We believe the risk in this case is extremely low,” said Dr. Dick Zoutman. “However we are taking all the required precautions to make sure there is no spread, the patient is well looked after and to get the testing done through the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.”

 Photo: QHC Chief of Staff Richard Zoutman

Dr. Zoutman praised the preparation and training of Quinte Health Care emergency department staff.

“The patient was identified and in proper isolation within five minutes,” said Dr. Zoutman. “Staff identified the risk and placed the individual in isolation.”

The Prince Edward Hasting Public Health Unit was notified and has been working closely with the hospital.

“We think the risk is very small, but not zero,” said Dr. Richard Schabas. “He has been to Sierra Leone, a place active with the Ebola disease. He has displayed some symptoms that are consistent with early Ebola disease. But we think the amount of exposure that this individual could possibly have had to Ebola is extremely small.”

The symptoms themselves are still very mild.

Dr. Schabas says Health Unit officials have already spoken to the patient to identify any possible contacts he may have had since his arrival in Canada.

“If this turns out to be Ebola—we can follow up with these contacts,” said Dr. Schabas.

But his office won’t begin to trace those contacts until Ebola disease is confirmed.

“We have to be a little careful,” said Dr. Schabas. “We are not going to trace the contacts of people who are not cases. We would be chasing our tail and causing a great deal of public anxiety for no real purpose. If he turns out to have Ebola, which I think is very unlikely, than we will be in very good position to immediately identify those contacts.”

QHC’s Dr. Zoutman explained that the hospital was ready and had trained for such an event—that this preparation enabled staff to move the patient immediately into isolation begin a set of procedures.

“The isolation room was already prepared and ready to go,” said Dr. Zoutman. “Protocols were ready to go. It worked very well. They asked all the right questions. I am very proud of our emergency department staff.”

In recent days however, healthcare workers in Texas and Spain have contracted the virus despite taking precautions.

Dr. Zoutman says that while the hospital hasn’t adopted any additional precautionary measures, he is confident in the protocols in place.

“We have very-carefully considered protocols that have been developed pretty similarly across the entire province and are quite similar across the country. We are, nevertheless, concerned about the fact that two healthcare workers, one in Spain and one in Texas, have developed exposure to Ebola despite taking precautions. Those cases are being carefully analyzed and we await those results. That is why training and preparation is essential.”

He said that QHC staff are trained not only how to put protective equipment on, but also how to take it off safely without accidentally wiping their brow or touching exposed skin.

“We learned this during SARS,” said Dr. Zoutman. “In those who acquired SARS despite taking precautions, we believe it was the removal of protective equipment that was often the source. Ebola is not the same virus as SARS and won’t behave the same way but we believe the protocols we are using are the best we have.”

Dr. Schabas of the public health unit stressed the low likelihood that this case would prove to be Ebola. He said infectiousness is closely related to the severity of symptoms.

“The risk of infection is strongly correlated to how ill they are,” said Dr. Schabas. “Even if the person has Ebola, and we don’t think he does, the risk of infection is very small.

“Hopefully this is a false alarm. I expect it will be one of many false alarms around the world in the next few weeks and months. We are very confident that everything that needs to be done, is being done.”