(AFP) — A Canadian doctor has put himself in quarantine as a precaution after spending weeks in West Africa treating patients with the deadly Ebola virus alongside an American doctor who is now infected, local media said Tuesday.
Azaria Marthyman of Victoria, British Columbia had worked in Liberia, one of four countries hit by an outbreak, with the Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse.
He has not tested positive for the virus, nor shown any symptoms since returning to Canada on Saturday, but one of his American colleagues, doctor Kent Brantly, is being treated for the disease.
“Azaria is symptom-free right now and there is no chance of being contagious with Ebola if you are not exhibiting symptoms,” Melissa Strickland, a spokesperson for Samaritan’s Purse, told broadcaster CTV.
Brantly, 33, became infected with Ebola while working with patients in the Liberian capital of Monrovia as he helped treat victims of the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
He “is not doing well. He is still in the early stages of the Ebola infection but having some daily struggles,” David McRay, a friend and family medicine doctor in Fort Worth, Texas, told AFP by phone.
“He has requested that I not talk in detail about his symptoms and what he is experiencing, but he is weak and quite ill.”
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