The Ebola scare got wider yesterday, with Turkey putting a Nigerian under watch
The Nigerian, who arrived in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday, created panic when she fell ill aboard a Turkish Airlines plane flying from Lagos to Istanbul.
It prompted authorities to take measures against a possible case of the Ebola virus.
The 32-year-old woman reportedly fell ill to fever and vomited during the flight before the pilot demanded paramedics’ attention.
Paramedics working under the General Directorate of Health for Borders and Coasts delivered the first treatment to the woman on the plane. She and her three-year-old son were later taken to the hospital for further examination.
The Turkish health ministry in a statement said officials were keeping a close watch on the woman as a precautionary measure.
“It is not possible to say the patient in question has the Ebola virus, but we are carefully evaluating even the smallest symptoms because she came from Nigeria,” the ministry said.
The spokesman of Turkish Airlines, Ali Genç, also confirmed the incident via his Twitter account. “The plane has been disinfected as a precautionary measure,” Genç stated.
The virus is spread by direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from an infected person. Ebola cannot be spread like the flu through casual contact or breathing the same air as someone who is infected.
It has killed 1,013 people and infected another 1,848, as the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows.
Ebola has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent, and there is no vaccine or known cure. The virus initially causes fever, headaches, muscle pain, headaches, sore throats, conjunctivitis and a general feeling of weakness, before moving into more severe phases of vomiting, diarrhea and hemorrhages and impaired kidney and liver function, with the final stages resulting in internal and external bleeding. Ebola is thought to only be transmitted when patients are displaying severe symptoms.
Source: The Nation
