Ebola virus scare reaches Germany as woman is tested in Berlin and 600 people are quarantined

August 2014 – BERLIN, Germany – The 20-year-old woman, who collapsed while working at a Job Centre in Berlin’s Pankow district was taken to hospital after showing symptoms of the virus. According to Berliner Zeitung the woman, who is originally from West Africa, said she had had contact with victims of Ebola in her homeland. The job centre was immediately cordoned off and around 600 people have now been quarantined inside, according to reports. Police have not confirmed the case was Ebola but said they were testing for the disease. The deadly virus can only be determined after a blood test is carried out. Early symptoms include fever and circulation issues and mucus. There have already been cases of Ebola found in Spain and Austria. A Spanish priest became the first person in Europe to be treated for the disease. Miguel Pajares suffered a fatal heart attack less than 48 hours after being diagnosed with the disease. –Express UK

3 tested for Ebola in Vietnam and Myanmar: Vietnam and Myanmar are testing 3 patients for the deadly Ebola virus after they arrived in the Southeast Asian nations from Africa while suffering from fever, health officials said. Two Nigerians were sent to Ho Chi Minh City’s Tropical Diseases Hospital for isolation after they arrived in the city by plane, Vietnam’s health ministry said, adding that they did not have symptoms other than fever. Airline passengers sitting next to the pair – who travelled to Vietnam on Monday, August 18, from Nigeria via Qatar – have been advised to monitor their own health. In Myanmar a 22-year-old local man was taken to hospital in Yangon after arriving at the city’s main airport on Tuesday, the Myanmar Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on its official Facebook page late Tuesday. It said he is believed to have returned from Guinea, having also travelled to Liberia, two of the countries worse hit by the Ebola outbreak. Four people who accompanied the man to hospital were also being kept under observation, although they have not shown signs of illness. “We have to send the samples to India for laboratory testing to see whether it is Ebola or not. The process will take 3 to 4 days,” Tun Tin, deputy director of the ministry of health, told the Agence France-Presse. He added that authorities were working closely with the World Health Organization.

Myanmar, which began emerging from harsh junta rule in 2011, has one of the world’s worst funded and poorly equipped healthcare systems, with many people cut off from even basic medical help. The global death toll from Ebola stands at 1,229, with the bulk of cases in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The medical charity MSF has said the outbreak is moving faster than aid organizations can handle, while the World Health Organization said the scale of the epidemic had been vastly underestimated. Vietnam has introduced mandatory temperature checks at its two major international airports in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to try to prevent passengers bringing the deadly virus into the country. – Rappler

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