Re: Ebola fever one possible diagnosis for ill Saskatchewan man
Re: Ebola fever one possible diagnosis for ill Saskatchewan man
[Source: ProMedMail.org, full page: (
LINK). Extract.]
Published Date: 2014-03-24 21:11:22 /
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Viral hemorrhagic fever - Canada: (SK) ex Liberia, susp. RFI /
Archive Number: 20140324.2354292
VIRAL HEMORRHAGIC FEVER - CANADA: (SASKATCHEWAN) ex LIBERIA, SUSPECTED, REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org / ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org / Date: 24 Mar 2014 / Source: CBC (Canada) [edited] /
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/man-critically-ill-in-saskatoon-after-travel-to-africa-1.2584762
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A man who recently travelled to Western Africa is in critical condition in hospital in Saskatoon, according to provincial health officials.
The nature of the illness was not released, but the man has a high fever, in addition to other symptoms. Officials say a diagnosis has not been confirmed.
Saskatchewan's deputy medical health officer Dr. Denise Werker said on Monday [24 Mar 2014] that the patient -- who had visited Liberia -- was being examined for a suspected case of viral hemorrhagic fever.
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Communicated by: ProMED-mail
promed@promedmail.org
[Clearly, more information from reliable sources would be greatly appreciated, including locations of travel within Liberia as well as more information on the clinical presentation and laboratory results.
The details provided in the flurry of media reports that have accompanied this announcement do not provide information on the clinical picture of the case other than "high fever and other symptoms" and that the man was in Liberia, and that viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) is being considered in the differential diagnosis.
Given the recent announcement of the ebolavirus outbreak in Guinea and the suspected geographic spread into neighboring Liberia, any person returning from this general area with a high fever and signs of a serious illness should be evaluated for possible viral hemorrhagic fever.
Ebolavirus disease has not been previously identified in Liberia, and the reports of suspected cases there (in Liberia) related to the confirmed outbreak in neighboring Guinea have not as yet been confirmed. Other possible VHFs known to occur in Liberia include Lassa fever and yellow fever.
While current reports state that Ebolavirus disease has not been reported in Liberia, a review of the history of Ebolavirus disease in the ProMED-mail archives revealed that, in 1994, there was a single case of Ebolavirus disease confirmed in Cote d'Ivoire, which involved the isolation of a new species of the virus called Cote d'Ivoire Ebola virus, in a woman who had done a necropsy on a chimp that had died of Ebolavirus disease (see
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=342 for more details). In addition, in 1994, there was a WHO report posted on ProMED-mail of a 25-year-old male from a village in Liberia who was admitted to hospital in the Tabou Prefecture (south of Tai National Park) in whom a diagnosis of Ebolavirus infection was confirmed by serological tests done at the Institute Pasteur in Paris (see Ebola - Cote d'Ivoire/Liberia 19951219.1294).
For a list of locations of Ebolavirus outbreaks and a map showing their geographic distribution, see
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/resources/distribution-map.html.
For a map of Canada showing the provinces and the location of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, see
http://www.map-of-canada.org/canada-map-742.jpg.
For the HealthMap/ProMED map of Canada showing Saskatchewan, see
http://healthmap.org/promed/p/262. For the HealthMap/ProMED map of Liberia, see
http://healthmap.org/promed/p/54. - Mod.MPP]
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