Ebola highly unlikely to surface in Yellowknife
Proper precautions are being taken, says chief public health officer
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, October 15, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The chances of someone arriving in Yellowknife with the deadly Ebola virus are highly unlikely.
That's according to Dr. Andre Corriveau, chief medical health officer for the NWT.
Because there are no direct flights from Africa to Yellowknife, anyone who may have been exposed to the virus would be checked when they first landed in Canada, Corriveau told Yellowknifer.
"Immigration Canada has been interviewing for months now people who arrive in Canada from the three countries in West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea) where the Ebola outbreak has killed thousands of people," he said. "If a person had flown from one of the high risk countries and was suspected to have had contact with someone with the virus and are displaying symptoms, quarantine officers from the Public Health Agency of Canada would prevent them from flying further."
They would immediately be taken to hospital, Corriveau said.
The quarantine officers are now working at six Canadian airports - Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Ottawa and Calgary - to help screen travellers from countries affected by the Ebola outbreak. Among the measures screeners are using is to take the temperature of people travelling from Ebola-affected countries. Any travellers from West Africa who show signs of illness or indicate that they have been in contact with someone who is sick will be referred to these officers.
There are no confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in the NWT, Corriveau said.
"But that doesn't mean we aren't taking precautions," he said. "Since August the provincial and territorial chief public health officers have been holding conference calls on Ebola and what measures to take if we have a suspected outbreak."
Keeping front-line health care providers safe is the main objective, Corriveau said.
"Public health officers are advising health care workers to make sure they are masked, gowned and wearing other protective equipment if they are dealing with anyone they suspect may have Ebola or had come in contact with someone with Ebola," he said.
A Yellowknife woman, Hawa Dumbuya, and her five-month-old daughter returned home to Yellowknife late last month after being stranded for two weeks in Sierra Leone.
"We are not in touch with her or her family. She hasn't reported any symptoms," Corriveau said.
He said the NWT doesn't really have the medical resources to deal with someone who has Ebola.
"If we discovered a patient who appeared to be suffering Ebola-like symptoms, they'd be medevaced to a hospital in Edmonton," he said, adding the NWT has agreements with Alberta's department of health for situations like this.
They would better be able to treat a person who may have Ebola, Corriveau said. He said his heart really goes out to people have been impacted by the Ebola epidemic.
"As health care workers we have tremendous sympathy for those people living in West Africa who are sick and dying from Ebola," Corriveau said.
He also has tremendous respect for the courageous, front-line health care workers who are helping people in Ebola-stricken countries, he added.
"I have a colleague from New Brunswick who is with the group Doctors Without Borders who is there in West Africa trying to help," he said.
Meanwhile, the first human clinical trials of a Canadian-developed Ebola vaccine began in Maryland Monday.
Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose said officials would be assessing the vaccine's safety and determining the appropriate dosage to fight the virus that has killed more than 4,000 people. Canada has committed about a thousand doses of the vaccine to the Ebola-stricken nations according to Dennis Bevington, MP for the NWT.
"We have also committed some 300,000 face masks as well," he said. "But we need to get the vaccines we promised them over there as soon as possible so that we can help the health care workers."
There is also a need to invest in infrastructure in those countries to help keep an epidemic like this one from ever happening again, Bevington said.
