Pandemic Information News: Panic As Woman Dies of Ebola-Like Symptoms At KNH

Friday, December 23, 2011

Panic As Woman Dies of Ebola-Like Symptoms At KNH

Panic As Woman Dies of Ebola-Like Symptoms At KNHBernard Momanyi
22 December 2011
Nairobi — A 29-year-old woman died of suspected Ebola attack at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi where she had been rushed for emergency treatment on Thursday morning.
Medics at the hospital said the woman was accompanied by three people, including the driver who were quarantined soon after she passed away.

"At about 10.20 am, a woman was brought in a taxi and she was accompanied by three people. She was bleeding heavily from parts of her body and she died even before she could be taken out of the car," Dr Masika Wafula, a Consultant on Infectious diseases told reporters at the hospital.
Dr Wafula said they had not authoritatively confirmed if she died of Ebola but he warned that the symptoms she displayed before she died are not of a normal disease.
"From her symptoms, this is not a common disease, we are taking all precautions and the necessary tests are being carried out," he added, declining to confirm it is Ebola.
A spokesman for the Kenyatta National Hospital Simon Ithai told reporters that a team of medical personnel had been dispatched to the hotel where the woman worked and at her home for further analysis.
Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) is a viral haemorrhagic fever and one of the most virulent viral diseases known to humankind.
There is no known treatment or vaccine for Ebola, which is transmitted through close personal contact.
It kills up to 90 percent of victims.
Its initial symptoms include persistent fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat which is usually followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes on the body as well as external bleeding.
In May this year, the Ebola virus killed a 12-year-old girl in Uganda prompting the Health Ministry in Kenya to issue an alert on people living at the border

In the meantime, the three people who accompanied her to the hospital remain in isolation and are receiving treatment at the hospital.The body of the woman was still lying in the taxi which ferried her to the hospital as medics prepared to carry out the tests. The vehicle was being guarded by security personnel to keep away a crowd which surged to have a glimpse of the body.
Capital News has learnt that the deceased woman was working at a hotel in downtown Nairobi.