A woman who recently returned to Guyana from West Africa and had some health concerns was confirmed yesterday to not have the deadly Ebola virus.
The Ebola Response Team yesterday sprang into action for the first time after hospital officials received information from a private physician that a patient, who had recently returned from an unnamed West African country not presently affected by Ebola, had sought medical attention for joint pains.
In a release from the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), the woman was reported as being in voluntary isolation after multiple tests at the public hospital determined that she did not have haemorrhagic Ebola which has claimed nearly 5,000 lives in West Africa and fuelled global anxiety.
According to the GPHC, the woman had reported mild joint pains and had expressed concern about the mosquito-borne Chikungunya infection which is prevalent here. She had recently returned from a leisure trip to a West African nation and this information prompted her physician to refer her to GPHC where she was immediately placed in isolation.
“She reported returning to Guyana, via Suriname, from a West African country where Ebola is not currently present. She has not had contact with anyone with sickness of any kind in the last 21 days,” GPHC said.
GPHC further said that the woman had exhibited no fever at any point. However, it was noted that she had taken non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications for her joint pains
