Ebola in Johannesburg?

There is a suspected case of Ebola at the Rahima Moosa Hospital in Westbury, DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom said on 14 August.

Bloom said he received information that a patient from Guinea has been taken into the hospital and is being kept in isolation.

“If it is a confirmed Ebola case, the patient will be transferred to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital. This hospital has been designated to treat Ebola and has the safeguards for it,” Bloom reportedly said.

National Health Department spokesperson Joe Maila said he could not immediately confirm this and said he would comment at a later stage.

Bloom said that the department had to provide full information to allay public fears. “Tracing has to be done to find any people who were in close contact with this particular patient,” he said.

Earlier this month, the National Health Department said that all ports in South Africa were on high alert for anyone entering the country with high temperatures.

The latest outbreak declared in Guinea in March 2014 has killed over 1 000 people, making it the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.