The 30-year-old woman from Guinea-Conacri hospitalised in Lisbon last Friday (February 20) after presenting “many symptoms” of Ebola was found to be infected with malaria instead.
As Público newspaper writes, this was the ninth suspected case of Ebola in Portugal that has turned out to be a false alarm.
The woman, reported to bevisiting her husband who works in Portugal, was initially admitted into the Barreiro-Montijo Hospital with fever. Staff got cold feet after they realised that the woman, who spoke no Portuguese, had flown in from an Ebola hotspot. Presenting “many” Ebola-like symptoms, she was quickly transferred to an isolation unit in Lisbon’s Curry Cabral Hospital , where she underwent tests carried out by specialists from the Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute.
The tests confirmed at the weekend that the woman was infected with malaria.
She is now believed to be receiving treatment and remains in hospital.
Meantime, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that 22,894 have been infected with Ebola since the beginning of this current epidemic.
So far, 9,177 people have died – only 15 of them outside Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
