COLOMBO, (PNA/Xinhua) — Sri Lanka’s health officials will send blood samples of a woman suspected to have died of Ebola to India for tests but have assured the disease is unlikely to have entered the country, local media reported on Wednesday.
A fatality at a remote government hospital in the town of Rikillagaskada was reported to have died after exhibiting several symptoms of Ebola, including a high fever, diarrhea and vomiting.
The patient was hospitalized after returning from India where she had worked periodically, according to local media reports.
A communique issued by the State Media Department said the symptoms could also mean that the woman had Rat Fever and that further blood samples had been sent to Pune in India for testing to verify the cause of death. There have been no reported cases of Ebola in India so far but a Nigerian woman enroute for India has died in the United Arab Emirates after exhibiting symptoms of the disease.
Symptoms of the virus take between two days to three weeks to become apparent.
The virus spreads through contact with infected individuals’ body fluid.
Earlier this month, the Sri Lankan government urged the return of hundreds of migrant workers employed in West Africa in an attempt to rescue them from the threat of Ebola.
Sri Lankan officials have also decided to screen all in-bound passengers at the country’s international airport for possible Ebola contamination.
However, risks are seen as low because Sri Lanka attracts few tourists from West Africa.
Ebola has no proven cures and there is no vaccine to prevent infection, so treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms such as fever, vomiting and diarrhea, all of which can contribute to severe dehydration.
The current outbreak, in which at least 1,711 people have so far been infected, of whom 932 have died, is the most severe in the almost 40 years since Ebola was identified in humans.