A NEW Zealand woman is being tested for Ebola after arriving home from western Africa where she’d been treating people with the virus.
THE woman’s blood samples have been sent to a high security laboratory in Melbourne to be tested and it’ll be up to two days before a result is known.
The health worker left Sierra Leone on Sunday and contacted her Christchurch public health officer when she became unwell on Friday morning. “Based on the patient’s symptoms, the Ebola virus needs to be ruled out,” New Zealand Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said in a statement. “I am advised that it is quite possible they are suffering from gastroenteritis or some other illness such as malaria.” Dr Coleman said New Zealand had carefully planned for any eventuality. The woman’s partner was the only person she’d been in direct contact with during the potentially infectious period, and the partner is now self-monitoring as a result. “Ebola is not easy to catch – transmission requires direct contact with an infected individual and only occurs through contact with blood and other body fluids,” Dr Coleman said. “If the health worker does have Ebola, they will not have been infectious while travelling as the individual was not symptomatic at that time.” The woman has been transferred from her Christchurch home to one of New Zealand’s four specially isolation facilities.