Ebola Virus

Man Hospitalized in Sweden With Suspected Case of Ebola Virus

            A young man who recently had traveled in an Ebola-hit African country was placed in medical isolation in Stockholm after developing a high fever Sunday evening, local media reported.

"Yes, we have a suspected [Ebola] case, but it's not confirmed," a spokeswoman for Stockholm's County Council told The Wall Street Journal.

            A communicable diseases specialist tasked with providing more detailed information about the case wasn't immediately available for comment.

Swedish media reported the unidentified man had developed high fever and stomach pains and sought medical care at a local health clinic.

            At the clinic the man said he recently had been traveling in one of the West African countries affected by an outbreak of the Ebola virus. The man then was transferred to an isolation unit at the Karolinska University Hospital.

"The risk that this is an Ebola case is minimal, but we are handling this with extreme care," communicable disease specialist Ake Ortqvist told the newspaper Aftonbladet. Dr. Ortqvist added that the probability for an Ebola outbreak in Sweden is very low.

Medical staff have taken a blood sample from the patient. The sample will be tested for Ebola by Sweden's Public Health Agency. Results are expected by Monday evening.

More than 1,500 people have died from the Ebola virus in the four affected countries of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone with more than 3,000 probable and confirmed cases of the disease, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

A Spanish priest died of Ebola in a hospital in Spain in mid-August shortly after he was airlifted from Liberia to Spain for treatment.

Suspected Ebola cases have been reported in Europe in the recent weeks. However, after examination by medical authorities the suspected cases have turned out to be false alarms.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/swedish-man-hospitalized-with-suspected-case-of-ebola-1409519411

Write to Juhana Rossi at juhana.rossi@wsj.com