An 18-year-old West African woman was being tested for Ebola after emigrating to Australia from Guinea with eight other family members 11 days ago, state health authorities said yesterday.
The woman, who has been in home quarantine and monitored by health authorities since her family’s arrival, was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital yesterday after telling health workers she had developed a fever, Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young told a media conference.
“She’s otherwise well and she has been in home quarantine since the time she arrived into Queensland,” said Young, adding there was no risk to the Australian community.
She emigrated to Australia from Guinea with eight other family members
The result of initial tests for the virus are expected today.
The woman, who travelled to Australia with eight other members of her extended family, was met at the airport in Brisbane by health authorities as a precaution and has been monitored daily. All were placed in home quarantine.
“She didn’t have any known contact with anyone that was sick with Ebola virus disease but she did come from an area that had a reasonably large number of cases, so that’s why it was thought appropriate that she go into home quarantine when she arrived here,” Young said.
Meanwhile the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, arrived in Guinea’s capital Conakry yesterday to see first hand how the global response is failing to stop the deadly spread of Ebola in West Africa.
Power, who will also visit Sierra Leone and Liberia, said she hopes to gain a better understanding of which resources are missing so she can push other countries to offer more help.
The three West African countries are bearing the brunt of the worst outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever on record that the World Health Organisation says has killed nearly 5,000 people.
A small number of cases have also been reported in Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the United States.
“We are not on track right now to bend the curve,” Power said. “I will take what I know and learn and obviously provide it to President Obama, who’s got world leaders on speed dial on this issue.”