Suspected Ebola case at Istanbul airport

ISTANBUL (AA) – A woman showing symptoms of the Ebola virus has been put under segregation after arriving at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport. The Nigerian woman and her four-year-old son were on a Turkish Airlines flight from Lagos in Nigeria to Istanbul on Tuesday when the mother, named as 32-year-old Stella Omorowa by the airline, told the cabin crew she was feeling unwell. Both mother and son were transferred to a nearby hospital after the mother showed symptoms of fever and vomiting.
They arrived in Istanbul to catch a connecting flight to Barcelona, Spain.
Ebola, a contagious disease for which there is no definite treatment or cure, has been responsible for more than 1,000 deaths in West Africa since and the latest outbreak in February. The virus has been largely confined to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone except two deaths in Nigeria and a health worker who died in Spain on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Turkish Health Ministry said the passengers were taken under supervision as a precaution, adding that it was too early to say if they have the virus. “Since they are coming from an Ebola-affected country, Nigeria, the Health Ministry is taking every possibility into account,” the statement said.
Last week, Turkish Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said Turkey does not face any risk from Ebola. He told reporters that Turkey had taken measures against any possible outbreak but did not give any details of the precautions.
The tropical fever, which first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, can be transmitted to humans from wild animals and also spreads through contact with the body fluids of an infected person.
Doctors say common symptoms of Ebola include high fever and headaches, followed by vomiting and internal and external bleeding.