Perilous Times

#ebola ⚠️[These are Italian aid workers who were working in Uganda near the DRC border.] ⚠️ ➡️ 🇺🇬 🇮🇹 Italy: Ebola in Milan: Two Suspected Cases— Special Health Protocol Activated at Sacco Hospital for a Man and a Woman from Como Returning from Uganda. Results Expected by Evening. - The individuals in question are ➡️ two Italian aid workers who spent three months in Uganda. Their ➡️ symptoms include: high fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and neurological symptoms for the woman; and a slight fever elevation and intestinal issues for the man. - Diagnostic testing is currently underway. - At the Sacco Hospital in Milan—a facility specializing in infectious diseases—a special protocol has been activated for two patients suspected of being at risk for Ebola. The alert was triggered at dawn in Lurate Caccivio and Bulgarograsso, in the Como area, regarding two individuals who had arrived in these municipalities. - Both had landed at Malpensa Airport at 5:50 a.m. on Sunday on a flight from Addis Ababa. - The patients are a 31-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman. Returning from Uganda, ➡️ both presented symptoms that could be indicative of an Ebola infection. - The ➡️ results of the tests they underwent are expected to arrive by this evening. - As explained by Guido Bertolaso, Lombardy Region’s Councilor for Welfare, ➡️ the two individuals are Italian aid workers who spent three months with Comboni missionaries in Uganda,➡️ in a region bordering the Congo—the country where an Ebola epidemic has broken out. - The two individuals, who belong to different families, ➡️ returned to Italy alongside five other people and went back to their homes in the Como area (specifically in Bulgarograsso and Lurate Caccivio). - ➡️ During the night, they began to manifest their first symptoms: high fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and neurological symptoms in her case; a slight rise in temperature and intestinal issues in his. - ➡️ These signs could suggest malaria—the 33-year-old woman’s daughter contracted the disease while in Africa—but, at this stage, they do not allow for the exclusion of the Ebola virus. "The daughter actually developed malaria during their stay in Uganda. Therefore, there is a precedent within the immediate family that leads us to believe this could be the cause of such severe symptoms in this woman," stated Bertolaso. - ➡️Transported in two separate ambulances, the aid workers were taken to Sacco Hospital for diagnostic testing and admitted to isolation wards. - It remains a possibility that ➡️ the woman, whose condition is more serious, may require admission to the ➡️ intensive care unit. - ➡️ Meanwhile, a precautionary isolation protocol has also been activated for their family members: they must remain at home pending the results of the tests. - The Regional Department of Welfare is in contact with the Ministry of Health, which has already retrieved the flight details for both aid workers. - ➡️ Should a case of Ebola be confirmed, the patient would be transferred to the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome—currently ➡️ the only facility equipped to handle such a situation. - Furthermore, ➡️ close contacts—as Ebola is transmitted via bodily fluids—would be required to observe a mandatory isolation period of 21 days, corresponding to the incubation period of the disease. - "If this turns out to be a genuine case, we will have to be extremely vigilant," explained Bertolaso. "I know Ebola well, having lived in Sierra Leone for three months during the most severe Ebola epidemic in human history; I am fully aware that it can pose an extremely serious health threat—yet, to do so, it requires a specific set of climatic and social conditions that, fortunately, we do not have here in Italy." By Sara milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronac…