Reports coming in from Rome in Italy indicate that an Italian doctor working in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the Ebola virus.
According to a statement made public on Monday, 24 November, 2014, the affected doctor, who works for a non-governmental organization in the West African country, is being transferred to Rome for treatment.
It was gathered that the health worker is arriving overnight in Italy for treatment at the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome.
Though the doctor’s is not yet identified, Italy’s Health Minister Beatrice Lornezin said he did not experienced a fever and other symptoms overnight and that he was well enough to eat breakfast and drink.
The ministry said all measures were being taken to ensure the safe transport of the patient.
“Our doctor is doing well, he didn’t have fever or other symptoms during the night, this morning he had breakfast, and is continuing to drink autonomously,” Italian Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said in the statement.
The first medical update on the doctor’s condition is expected to be issued Tuesday morning, according to a ministry spokesman.
Meanwhile, the NGO the victim works for said the doctor had developed some unspecified Ebola symptoms but was in a “good general condition.”
It added that all its staff in Sierra Leone had been trained to avoid contamination.
“However no healthcare in such a serious epidemic can be considered completely risk-free,” the NGO said in a statement.
“The situation in Sierra Leone is alarming: the epidemic is still widening with 100 new cases a day.
Meanwhile, it is Italy’s first confirmed case of Ebola.
According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, there are more than 5,000 people with Ebola in the country but the real figures could be much higher.”
The disease, which causes high fever and internal bleeding, is spread via bodily fluids from sick people who are showing symptoms.
It would be recalled that a surgeon from Sierra Leone last died at the Nebraska hospital in the US where he was being treated for Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, after arriving from the West African nation.
Reuters reports that Dr. Martin Salia, a permanent U.S. resident, contracted the virus while working in a Freetown hospital.
