A ship crew member barred from entering Malta after he was suspected of carrying the Ebola virus was actually diagnosed with malaria, the government confirmed yesterday.
Two days after the initial scare, the government said the Italian health authorities had informed their Maltese counterparts that the Filipino crew member had been diagnosed with severe malaria.
Though Malta is fully equipped to cope with a possible outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, its facilities are limited since only two patients at a time can be treated at Mater Dei Hospital. In that case Malta would need to seek help from abroad.
This was confirmed by the Health Ministry yesterday, in the wake of the Ebola scare.
Malta can treat no more than two cases at a time
The merchant vessel carrying the crew member was refused entry into a Maltese port by the government. The MV Western Copenhagen sailed towards Sicily, where the Filipino crew member was disembarked
The government’s decision prompted questions whether Malta actually lacked the facilities to treat patients infected with Ebola.
“The decision taken by the government was to act on the side of caution asking for full details on the state of the patient before taking further decisions,” the health parliamentary spokeswoman said yesterday, as The Sunday Times of Malta was given a tour of facilities.
However, she emphasised that everything had already been in place to admit the patient in one of two specially-equipped rooms at Mater Dei Hospital.
She said standard operational procedures had been established by an Ebola Virus Monitoring Committee. The measures agreed with all the relevant authorities were in line with guidelines provided by the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
While doctors have been briefed on Ebola symptoms to watch out for, port officials have been instructed by the health authorities to notify them in case of suspected cases on an incoming vessel or aircraft. If the case is deemed as very serious, medical staff from the Infectious Diseases Unit at Mater Dei Hospital equipped with special protective gear, would be called to intervene.
The patient would then be transferred to Mater Dei by means of an isolator stretcher. Equipped with its own ventilation system, the tube-shaped stretcher wrapped in transparent plastic would allow nurses to administer treatment in complete safety through a number of holes at the side.
Once at Mater Dei, the patient would be admitted through a different entrance to minimise risks of contamination. The same area would then have to be disinfected, while the other patients in the unit would have to be transferred elsewhere. At that point, the patient is transferred to an isolation room, where nurses would only be allowed to administer treatment under the constant supervision of medical consultants who would be monitoring them through a close circuit camera.
The standard procedure also dictates the use of protective gear covering the entire body at all times, which would have to be disposed of or disinfected for each visit.
However, Mater Dei’s infectious diseases consultant Charles Mallia Azzopardi noted that due to its limitations, Malta could only treat two patients at a time. In case of a bigger outbreak, the local authorities would have to seek help from abroad, he said.
He said that each isolation room is covered in special permeable material, and requires highly sophisticated ventilation systems which replace the air inside at least 20 times an hour.
Though there is no vaccine yet, the patient would be treated against dehydration in the hope that this would help his immune system to fight against the virus.
While acknowledging that the thought of coming into contact with this deadly virus made all the staff apprehensive, he said no stone was left unturned to take all possible precautions to minimise risks.