Ebola suspected in Sweden with man isolated over fears he has deadly virus

The emergency wing of the hospital which reported the suspected infection
AFP/Getty Images
Jacob Jarvis4 January 2019

A man has been isolated in Sweden amid fears he has contracted the deadly Ebola virus.

Officials stated the unnamed patient had been tested with results set to be available later on Friday.

The news first came from Region Uppsala, which oversees several hospitals and medical clinics north of Stockholm.

Its statement said it was so far "only a matter of suspicion," adding "other diseases are quite possible."

A note for patients and visitors is seen on the door of the hospital in Enkoping
TT News Agency/Fredrik Sandberg via REUTERS

The authorities said the hospital in Enkoping, where the patient was first admitted, had its emergency clinic shut down.

This was before he was transferred to Sweden's Uppsala University Hospital.

The hospital in Enkoping added the staff who treated the patient were "cared for".

The door of the hospital
Fredrik SANDBERG / TT News Agency / AFP

"The patient came in Friday morning and reportedly was vomiting blood which may be a symptom of Ebola infection," hospital spokesman Mikael Kohler told local newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning.

He was not immediately available for further comment.

The chief medical officer of the Uppsala University Hospital said the man and was exhibiting classic symptoms of haemorrhagic fever, including vomiting blood.

The medical officer added that the man had recently been in Burundi, East Africa, for around three weeks.

Symptoms of the highly contagious and often fatal virus can take up to three weeks to appear.

There is no known Ebola outbreak in Burundi, however it borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been fighting an outbreak for almost six months.

Ebola has killed 356 of the 585 people known to have been infected.

The epidemic in a volatile part of Congo is the second worst ever, according to the World Health Organisation, while the largest outbreak was one in 2013-2016 in West Africa, where more than 28,000 cases were confirmed.

The haemorrhagic fever's virus is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of those infected.

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