He said the male student from a private university campus here had developed cough, severe body ache and high fever, among the early symptoms related to Ebola, after being in contact with a group of Nigerian students who had just returned to Sarawak from their home country.
“He (the Zimbabwean student) had been referred to a private specialist hospital here (but) because of the symptoms and because of him having contacts with the Nigerian students, he was later referred to the Sarawak General Hospital,” he told a hastily-called press conference at his office in Petra Jaya here.
He said the Nigerian students had been found to be in good health but the state health authority is keeping them in isolation at the campus for the time being pending further medical checkS on them.
“Even though they are healthy we also do an extensive investigation on all the Nigerian students who had gone back to Nigeria and come back to our State,” he said.
Dr Jerip said samples obtained from the affected student were currently being analysed by the State Epidemiology Unit and it might take at least about a week before the result from the analysis could be obtained.
He said the public should not panic as the State Medical Department was taking all the required disease preventive measures.
“We want to be very sure… even though we have this situation (where it is not confirmed yet whether the student has Ebola) we are putting ourselves in a high precautionary state,” he added.
— BERNAMA
