Canada’s top doctor is set to give an update today on two virus outbreaks abroad that have officials on alert at home.
Dr. Joss Reimer, the country’s chief public health officer, will speak this afternoon about the latest developments on hantavirus in the wake of a Canadian testing positive for the disease after disembarking a cruise ship where an outbreak began.
Reimer will also speak about the government’s response to a rare type of Ebola rapidly spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
She will be joined by officials from Global Affairs Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also spoke about both outbreaks at a press conference today, upgrading his risk assessment of Ebola at national and regional levels from high to “very high,” while saying the global risk remains low.
He says there are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths.
Ontario’s ministry of health said Wednesday that it was testing a person for Ebola who had recently returned from East Africa "out of an abundance of caution."
Lab results are expected to be completed today after arriving at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg yesterday.
On hantavirus, provincial health officials told The Canadian Press Thursday that the condition of a resident from Yukon remains stable at a hospital in British Columbia.
The other three passengers who disembarked the ship on the same day and are isolating on Vancouver Island are asymptomatic, including the infected individual's partner.
Dr. Tedros says there are 12 hantavirus cases internationally, with the latest confirmed in the Netherlands Friday.
No deaths have been reported since May 2, when the outbreak was first reported to WHO. All cases have been among crew members and passengers who were on the MV Hondius cruise ship.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
