Almeria Ebola patient receives results

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TEST results have been released that show that the man admitted to Torrecárdenas hospital in Almeria does not have the Ebola virus.

The tests had been sent to the National Microbiology Centre in Madrid’s Carlos III Institute, and have confirmed that the man is not suffering from Ebola, but has been diagnosed with malaria.

Thursday September 18 was frantic for many in Almeria’s health service, and in the city in general, as people imagined that the world’s next outbreak of the deadly virus was to start in the streets of Almeria.

Fortunately it was not to be, as the Spanish health service has seen yet another false alarm.

The 36-year-old male patient had recently returned from Guinea, one of the three countries (along with Sierra Leone and Liberia) which are being affected most by the virus.

This, combined with the fact that the man complained of a sore throat and had a temperature of 38.3 degrees Celsius, was what triggered the quarantine process.

It is encouraging, however, to see how well the isolation procedure was pulled off once the alarm was raised.

An ambulance equipped with two health workers dressed from head to toe in quarantine suits accompanied the patient to Torrecárdenas hospital where he was placed into preventative quarantine in the intensive care ward whilst he awaited test results.

Whilst in limbo, the health centre in Roquetas de Mar where the man had originally presented himself was closed for disinfection, a necessary process that nevertheless caused panic amongst residents as they debated over social media sites whether or not the next big health scare was knocking on the door.

In the end, the worry all came to nothing; but ‘better safe than sorry’ is surely a mantra that the world must adhere to as long as the Ebola virus remains a risk.

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