A nurse who treated Ebola patients with the Red Cross in Sierra Leone has been hospitalised in Australia after developing a low-grade fever, health officials said.
She is being tested for the deadly virus.
The 57-year-old volunteer recently returned to Cairns, in the northeastern state of Queensland, where she has been isolating herself and checking her temperature twice daily, Jeannette Young, the state’s chief health officer, said.
Today, she reported a temperature of 37.6 degrees Celsius (99.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Results of tests for Ebola and other possible infections are expected early tomorrow.
“Importantly, she has reported that while in Sierra Leone strict Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE procedures, were followed at all times and were not breached at any stage,” Ms Young said. “However, as her temperature does demonstrate a low-grade fever, which can be symptomatic of Ebola virus disease, all necessary precautions are being taken.”
The Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia has killed more than 3,800 people, among them doctors and nurses caring for the sick.
About 401 health-care workers have been infected in West Africa and 232 of them have died, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
The nurse hospitalised in Cairns was identified as Sue- Ellen Kovack by the Australian newspaper.
Ms Kovack returned home two days ago, the newspaper reported. She was working in Kenema, in Sierra Leone’s south, with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in a Ebola treatment center, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Photographs posted on her Facebook page show her wearing a hazardous material suit, goggles, gloves and boots and commenting on taking blood from an Ebola survivor at the centre.
Bloomberg