MANILA, Philippines鈥擳he Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has yet to receive official reports about a Filipino sailor contracting the Ebola virus in the West African country of Togo.
Foreign Affairs聽Spokesman Charles Jose said the DFA was still verifying a report by Reuters quoting Togo health officials that two suspected cases of Ebola involving a Filipino sailor and a Togolese national were being tested.
A local Togo news website reported that the Filipino, a 32 year old sailor, arrived at Togo鈥檚 capital of Lome already suffering from bleeding and vomiting.
The Togolese national, a student, had reportedly just returned from a pilgrimage in Sierra Leone, one of the four countries where Ebola has been spreading. The student reportedly did not visit the regions afflicted with the Ebola epidemic but showed symptoms of the virus.
Both are being monitored in an isolation center in a hospital, the report said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded nearly 2,500 cases of Ebola virus in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
At least 1,350 casualties have been recorded in the worst ever Ebola outbreak in history.
鈥淚n the current outbreak, the majority of Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases are a result of human-to-human transmission and failure to apply appropriate infection prevention and control measures in home care, some clinical settings, and in burial rituals,鈥 WHO said in its August 20 Disease Outbreak News.
鈥淚t is important to understand that聽(Ebola virus)聽is not an airborne disease. Individuals may become infected as a result of contact with the bodily fluids (vomit, diarrhoea, sputum, blood, etc.) from persons who are confirmed to have聽EVD聽or who have died from聽EVD,鈥 it said.
RELATED STORY
OFWs in Nigeria 鈥榤ore concerned鈥 on job stability than Ebola