By Ian Karleff
TORONTO (Reuters)
- A Congolese woman suffering from a mysterious tropical disease
was placed on life support in a Canadian hospital on Thursday
as international experts stepped up their hunt to find the virus
threatening her life.
Health officials
have already ruled out the chance that the woman who has not been
named, is suffering from the deadly Ebola (news - web sites) virus,
which killed over 170 people in a recent outbreak in Uganda and
which is almost always fatal.
She has been
in strict quarantine in a Canadian hospital since she was taken
seriously ill at the weekend, soon after arriving in Canada from
the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites).
"The
bad news is the patient took a turn for the worse last night and
is now in critical condition on life support,'' said Dr. Mark
Loeb, an infectious disease specialist at Hamilton Health Sciences
Corp.
Doctors said
her worsening symptoms include liver failure.
Canadian health
officials said on Wednesday that tests showed the woman was not
suffering from Ebola, and they now suspect one of a handful of
other tropical viral hemorrhagic fevers.
"The
Ebola testing to date is negative according to our lab in Winnipeg,
but a number of other possible hemorrhagic fevers have not been
ruled out,'' said Dr. Douglas MacPherson, an infectious disease
specialist at Health Canada.
The case,
which has garnered significant media attention, had raised fears
that the woman had imported the first case of Ebola to North America.
Ebola and
other hemorrhagic fevers are spread through human secretions such
as blood, semen, saliva and mucous. Victims die from shock after
days of fever, vomiting and heavy bleeding.
"We are
pressing very hard to get the diagnostic testing from the Winnipeg
lab, and the international agencies that have this as their top
priority,'' added MacPherson.
The Center
for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) in Atlanta
said it had received samples from Canada early on Thursday, but
was not sure how long it will take to run the requisite tests.
"They
(Health Canada) haven't even ruled out certain things so we don't
know how long these tests will take,'' a CDC spokesman told Reuters.
Ebola and
other hemorrhagic fevers are only spread through close contact
with an infected person, but Canadian officials say they are being
very cautious with the patient.
A total of
63 healthcare and laboratory workers who may not have been wearing
adequate protective gear when handling the woman or her samples
are being monitored closely, although Loeb said none were showing
worrisome symptoms.
Health officials
have repeatedly assured the public that there is virtually no
chance anybody was infected on the woman's journey to Canada via
New York because her symptoms did not materialize until she arrived
in Canada.
"We remain
confident that her period of illness began only in Hamilton,''
said MacPherson in reference to the city of 350,000, situated
40 miles to the west of Toronto.
Ebola first
emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as
Zaire, in 1976.
Some Canadian
infection control specialists say it is unlikely that a definitive
diagnosis will ever be made and the best case might actually have
been a diagnosis of Ebola.
"If it's
Ebola we know what we are dealing with and we don't have to worry.
There is a 65 to 75 percent chance we will never know,'' said
Dr. Allison McGeer, direction of infection control at Mt. Sinai
Hospital in Toronto.
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