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Deadly ebola scare at Mpilo Hospital

by Nkosana Sibanda
28 Apr 2014 at 20:26hrs | Views
Business came to a standstill on Saturday at Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo as nurses and the public scurried for safety after a suspected case of the deadly ebola disease in the casualty department.

There was an emergency evacuation of patients from the hospital's casualty area A and the intensive care unit (ICU).

The areas were cordoned off from public access the whole day as nurses were seen moving around in highly protective garbs, covering their faces and skin to avoid being contaminated by a possible case of the ebola virus.

"We suspected there was an ebola virus case after we attended to a patient who had symptoms of the disease," said Dr Jephat Moyo, a medical doctor at the hospital

"The patient came from Gweru by ambulance and needed emergency attention, but the state he was in raised alarm that it could be the disease. He was bleeding from the rectum, nose and mouth. He also had bloody wounds all over the body and the first diagnosis we recommended was that it was ebola."

Moyo said the hospital had to take precautionary measures by immediately evacuating people in case it was the ebola disease.

"We closed off to the public, the casualty area and the ICU where the patient had had access to as we disinfected the areas, but the areas were reopened towards the end of the day," he said.

"Even if we knew it wasn't ebola, we had to take the strictest measures of safety in making sure that there is no contamination that would have been disastrous."

The patient has since died from the strange disease, but Moyo said blood samples were taken to determine the cause of the disease.

"Athough the patient unfortunately died, his blood samples were drawn and taken to the central laboratory where they are being tested. We have not yet received the results to determine the disease.

"The patient died from haemorrhage (bleeding) fever, traditionally called haemolytic uremic syndrome that is more related to dysentery and bloody diarrhoea," he said.

The deadly, but curable ebola disease has reportedly wreaked havoc in Guinea where more than a 150 people have been killed and hundreds infected with international heath institutions like the World Health Organisation and the Medicines Sans Frontieres battling to locate people who have had contacts with victims.

Symptoms of the disease, according to the Wikipedia, are  "fever, throat and muscle pains, and headaches. There is then nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. At this point some people begin to have problems with bleeding".

The disease, which was first diagnosed in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is highly contagious at physical contact with bodily fluids or blood of
an infected person, monkey or fruit bat.

Fruits that have been contacted by infected mediums also act as transmitters of the disease such that a ban on the movement of fruits and vegetable from and into an area where it is discovered should be effected to avoid spread of disease.

Source - Zim Mail
More on: #Ebola, #Mpilo