Patient in Sweden is feared to have been struck down with EBOLA

Patient in Sweden is feared to have been struck down with EBOLA as hospital announces its emergency room is closed

• The patient is currently in isolation at the University Hospital in Uppsala
• Ebola is considered one of the most lethal pathogens in existence 
• Tests results of the patient are expected tonight, officials have announced 

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A patient in Sweden is feared to have been struck down with Ebola, local media reports. 

The patient, whose identity is unknown, is currently in isolation at the University Hospital in Uppsala. Test results are expected tonight. 

Ebola is considered one of the most lethal pathogens in existence and killed 11,000 during an epidemic that started in 2014.

A patient in Sweden is feared to have been struck down with Ebola, local media reports

In a statement, Swedish officials said: ‘The emergency room at the hospital is therefore currently closed. 

‘The patient is isolated and staff who have met the patient are taken care of.’

Officials at Region Uppsala – the local health body – have admitted it is ‘quite possible’ the patient could have another disease.   

Mikael Köhler, head doctor at Region Uppsala, told UNT how the patient visited a hospital in Enköping this morning.

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He said: ‘They had blood in their vomit, which can be a symptom of Ebola. 

‘The patient came home from a trip to, among other places, Burundi, in central Africa, three weeks ago.

‘But they have not as far as we are aware visited any areas where there is active Ebola contagion.’

The patient has been moved to Uppsala University Hospital, where patients seeking emergency treatment in Enköping are being advised to visit.

There is an ongoing outbreak of the killer virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Latest figures reveal 366 people have died in the African nation since the outbreak began last August. 

It comes after a healthcare worker in the US was quarantined last month amid fears he may have the virus after returning home from the DRC. 

The medic, who was not originally showing any signs of Ebola, is expected to be in isolation at a hospital in Nebraska for another week.  

WHAT IS EBOLA AND HOW DEADLY IS IT?

Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever, killed at least 11,000 across the world after it decimated West Africa and spread rapidly over the space of two years.

That epidemic was officially declared over back in January 2016, when Liberia was announced to be Ebola-free by the WHO.

The country, rocked by back-to-back civil wars that ended in 2003, was hit the hardest by the fever, with 40 per cent of the deaths having occurred there.

Sierra Leone reported the highest number of Ebola cases, with nearly of all those infected having been residents of the nation.

WHERE DID IT BEGIN? 

An analysis, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found the outbreak began in Guinea – which neighbours Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A team of international researchers were able to trace the epidemic back to a two-year-old boy in Meliandou – about 400 miles (650km) from the capital, Conakry.

Emile Ouamouno, known more commonly as Patient Zero, may have contracted the deadly virus by playing with bats in a hollow tree, a study suggested.

HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE STRUCK DOWN? 

Figures show nearly 29,000 people were infected from Ebola – meaning the virus killed around 40 per cent of those it struck.

Cases and deaths were also reported in Nigeria, Mali and the US – but on a much smaller scale, with 15 fatalities between the three nations.

Health officials in Guinea reported a mysterious bug in the south-eastern regions of the country before the WHO confirmed it was Ebola. 

Ebola was first identified by scientists in 1976, but the most recent outbreak dwarfed all other ones recorded in history, figures show.

HOW DID HUMANS CONTRACT THE VIRUS? 

Scientists believe Ebola is most often passed to humans by fruit bats, but antelope, porcupines, gorillas and chimpanzees could also be to blame.

It can be transmitted between humans through blood, secretions and other bodily fluids of people – and surfaces – that have been infected.

IS THERE A TREATMENT? 

The WHO warns that there is ‘no proven treatment’ for Ebola – but dozens of drugs and jabs are being tested in case of a similarly devastating outbreak.

Hope exists though, after an experimental vaccine, called rVSV-ZEBOV, protected nearly 6,000 people. The results were published in The Lancet journal. 

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