By Glynn Cosker
Editor, In Homeland Security
Macedonia health officials are checking a deceased British man for the Ebola virus. The man arrived in Skopje from Britain Oct. 2 but became extremely ill within days. He died within four hours of going to the hospital.
Health ministry official Dr. Jovanka Kostovska stated that the Briton was feverish, vomiting and presented with internal bleeding.
“These are all symptoms of Ebola, which raises suspicions with this patient,” Kostovska stated during an urgent news conference.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids such as feces, urine and blood. There is no official word yet on whether the patient had recently traveled to Ebola-stricken West Africa where nearly 4,000 people have died from the disease.
Macedonia’s government said that “as a precaution, based on the protocol of the World Health Organization, medical authorities are taking all measures as if the patient had been suffering from a highly infectious disease.”
The hotel in which the man was staying was sealed off Thursday with its staff and another Briton quarantined in an effort to prevent the spread of infection. The paramedics who took the sick man to the hospital are also currently isolated.
If the diagnosis of Ebola is confirmed, it will represent the first United Kingdom citizen to die from the disease. Autopsy results for are expected by Saturday.
Spanish nurse Teresa Romero was the first European Union citizen to catch Ebola outside of Africa.
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