TORONTO – A St. Catharines Hospital has isolated a patient with flu-like symptoms who came to the hospital after recently spending time in West Africa, a region beset by the worst Ebola outbreak on record.
The patient was isolated in keeping with the province’s Ebola protocols and a state of “heightened vigilance” at the hospital, according to a statement. The patient is stable; health officials don’t yet know whether the patient has Ebola.
“On the whole, our analysis indicates this situation is very low-risk,” Dr. Tom Stewart, the hospital’s chief of staff, said in a press release. “That said we are taking every precaution and isolating the patient per the best practice protocols, with advice from infectious disease experts and public health.”
READ MORE: How health officials are responding to the Ebola outbreak globally
The St. Catharines hospital is fitted with new negative pressure rooms and sufficient infrastructure to isolate individual patients from the hospital general population.
This is the second time an Ontario hospital has isolated a patient since the global pandemic began: Brampton Civic Hospital isolated a patient with similar symptoms in August. Tests eventually confirmed the person, who had also travelled recently in the region, did not have Ebola.
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