PORT OF SPAIN – A suspected case of Ebola caused a scare at Port of Spain General Hospital yesterday morning but the Nigerian national who displayed the suspicious symptoms turned out to be afflicted with malaria.
This was stated by the Ministry of Health.
The Express visited the hospital around 11 a.m. but there was no sign of panic by the doctors and nurses on duty.
Several nurses were asked about the incident but most claimed that they did not know about the patient.
Just one nurse pointed out that the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Ward were the ones who first received the “patient” and as she walked past the department she told the Express, “he came in through there and I am not going there for nothing”.
The Express also understands that the man is now a patient in ward 34.
The Ministry of Health further cleared up the issue with an official release which stated that it “wished to advise that there is no suspected case of Ebola in Trinidad and Tobago at this time. On December 19 2014, a Nigerian student was seen at the Accident & Emergency Department of the St James Medical Complex and was transferred to the Port of Spain General Hospital for further management.”
The ministry added that the man complained of fever and vomiting but he had not travelled outside of Nigeria for over one year prior to arriving in Trinidad earlier this month.
“The patient is suspected to have malaria and is stable and investigations were performed to confirm this diagnosis,” the ministry stated. (Express)
