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Exclusive: Guinea says Ebola patients sent home after botched blood tests
Mon Mar 2, 2015 5:54pm GMT
By Emma Farge
...
Five health officials and experts familiar with the incidents said the mistakes occurred at two different treatment centres and resulted as many as 52 botched tests, exposing many others to the virus and revealing weaknesses in Guinea's response to the crisis.
...
MSF said it discovered on Feb. 6 that blood samples from 43 patients taken from its Donka centre had been placed in tubes containing the blood-thinning drug heparin.
Heparin typically takes the form of an invisible coating inside a tube whereas Ebola tubes are either empty or contain a blood preservative called EDTA. It should have been easy to identify the correct tubes since the set containing heparin have green lids and the ones used for Ebola are red or purple.
"MSF took the incident very seriously and immediately replaced the tubes and opened an investigation," said Rosa Crestani, MSF's emergency programme coordinator.
Three of those tested were later discovered to be Ebola positive and recovered, she said. No-one who came in contact with the trio who contracted the disease.
At the Coyah centre, Guinea's busiest Ebola facility that is also supported by staff from the African Union, the samples of nine people were accidentally placed in tubes also containing heparin, said another health official.
The official said that after initially being found to be negative, three of the nine later tested positive, of whom two died. No further cases among contacts of the Ebola patients released from Coyah have been identified, he said.
...
Dr. Andre Spiegel, director of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, declined to comment, saying the information was sensitive and confidential. Guinea's Keita said the World Health Organization (WHO) had sent a supervisor to assist the laboratory. The WHO did not respond to a request for comment.
More:
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN0LY21220150302?sp=true
Mon Mar 2, 2015 5:54pm GMT
By Emma Farge
...
Five health officials and experts familiar with the incidents said the mistakes occurred at two different treatment centres and resulted as many as 52 botched tests, exposing many others to the virus and revealing weaknesses in Guinea's response to the crisis.
...
MSF said it discovered on Feb. 6 that blood samples from 43 patients taken from its Donka centre had been placed in tubes containing the blood-thinning drug heparin.
Heparin typically takes the form of an invisible coating inside a tube whereas Ebola tubes are either empty or contain a blood preservative called EDTA. It should have been easy to identify the correct tubes since the set containing heparin have green lids and the ones used for Ebola are red or purple.
"MSF took the incident very seriously and immediately replaced the tubes and opened an investigation," said Rosa Crestani, MSF's emergency programme coordinator.
Three of those tested were later discovered to be Ebola positive and recovered, she said. No-one who came in contact with the trio who contracted the disease.
At the Coyah centre, Guinea's busiest Ebola facility that is also supported by staff from the African Union, the samples of nine people were accidentally placed in tubes also containing heparin, said another health official.
The official said that after initially being found to be negative, three of the nine later tested positive, of whom two died. No further cases among contacts of the Ebola patients released from Coyah have been identified, he said.
...
Dr. Andre Spiegel, director of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, declined to comment, saying the information was sensitive and confidential. Guinea's Keita said the World Health Organization (WHO) had sent a supervisor to assist the laboratory. The WHO did not respond to a request for comment.
More:
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN0LY21220150302?sp=true