On Tuesday, reports out of Pakistan revealed that the country’s second suspected case of Ebola has surfaced in the past twenty-four hours.
The 41-year-old man has been kept under watch in an isolation unit at PIMS Hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, after showing symptoms comparable to those displayed by people infected with Ebola. The man was reportedly traveling through Uganda last month before returning home to Pakistan. Uganda has not reported any Ebola infections, but has been trying to contain the spread of a sometimes-lethal Ebola-like fever called the Marburg Virus.
Another patient was immediately rushed to a Karachi hospital when his plane touched down on Monday. The patient’s flight reportedly originated in Monrovia, which is Liberia’s capital city and a known Ebola hotspot. Sources told Pakistan’s Tribune that the man had a bad fever when he landed. His blood samples have been sent abroad for testing, as Pakistan does not have the tools to 100 percent confirm an Ebola infection.
Last week, a Pakistani citizen who had been traveling through West Africa was isolated with symptoms related to Ebola. Although he died of Hepatitis C and Dengue, the patients blood samples showed that he had not contracted Ebola.
Islamabad and Karachi and their surrounding metro areas have a combined population of almost thirty million people, which amounts to roughly three times the combined population of Ebola-affected nations Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The latest statistics reported from the World Health Organization reveal that more than 16,000 people have been infected with Ebola and almost 7,000 have now died from the deadly virus.
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