By Kim Rahn
A Korean man who recently returned from a trip to Guinea in West Africa is being treated in an isolation ward after showing symptoms of Ebola, health officials said Tuesday.
The man, 42, whose name was withheld, was taken to the National Medical Center in Seoul immediately after arriving on Sunday from Guinea. The virus killed more than 8,000 people in West Africa.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said he had a high fever ― an Ebola symptom ― but was “showing signs of recovering.”
“The initial test was negative, and the fever is going down. However, this does not mean he is not infected with the virus,” an official said. “The high fever may be linked to other diseases, but we have separated him from other patients and are keeping a close eye on his condition.”
Suspected Ebola patients are isolated and monitored for at least 21 days, the incubation period.
There have been no reported cases of Ebola in Korea, although four people, including the person in this case, have been taken to hospital after visiting West African countries. The other three were released after showing no symptoms after the incubation period
Meanwhile, the government has strengthened training and safety education for members of the second medical team that will be sent to Sierra Leone soon to help fight Ebola.
The measure comes after a member of the first team was sent to a hospital in Germany after a needle grazed the member’s skin while the member was collecting blood from an Ebola patient on Dec. 30.
Members of the second team, who have been receiving education at the Korea Armed Forces Nursing Academy in Daejeon, are undergoing stricter training about putting on and taking off personal protective equipment (PPE) and collecting blood, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
“The PPE training is the same as that given at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Goderich near Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, where they will work,” a ministry official said.
“Based on the first team’s experience at the center, the second team members are receiving detailed education about how to cooperate with foreign staff and how to react in case of possible exposure to the Ebola virus.”
He said that for better communication with foreign staff at the ETC, training was being done in English.
“Despite the accident to the worker of the first team, second team members haven’t become nervous at all” he said. “They will be dispatched on Saturday as scheduled.”