Glasgow 2014: Cyclist tests negative for Ebola
- 1 August 2014
- From the section Scotland
An athlete at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow has tested negative for Ebola, organisers have confirmed.
A spokesman for Glasgow 2014 said the competitor was given tests for a number of conditions after he fell ill last week and was admitted to hospital.
Sierra Leone road cyclist Moses Sesay, 32, competed in his event, the men's individual time trial, on Thursday.
Ebola has caused more than 700 deaths since February in an outbreak affecting four west African countries.
The spokesman said: "There is no Ebola in the Athletes' Village of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
"We can confirm an athlete was tested for a number of things when he fell ill last week, including Ebola.
"The tests were negative and the athlete competed in his event on Thursday."
"We are dismayed by some of the sensational and misleading headlines to date."
A spokeswoman for Health Protection Scotland added it was an isolated incident and no other athletes were tested.
"No one has tested positive for Ebola in Scotland," she said.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland about how Scotland is dealing with any potential Ebola cases, Dr Colin Ramsay, of Health Protection Scotland, said: "There's been no programme of actively screening athletes simply because of the Commonwealth Games.
"The situation is that if someone presents with symptoms suggestive of the possibility of Ebola virus infection and who has come from a country affected by the current outbreak - and that's Sierra Leone and Guinea and Liberia - they would be investigated accordingly and that would involve managing them with a set of standard precautions."
He added: "People in this sort of situation would be investigated for a number of conditions, not just Ebola."
Sesay's home country, where more than 200 people have died from the disease, has declared a public health emergency.
World Health Organization (WHO) director general Margaret Chan will meet the presidents of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea later to discuss the outbreak of Ebola in west Africa.
The WHO is hoping that public health organisations around the world will help provide several hundred more medical staff needed to treat the victims of the fever.
The outbreak - the world's deadliest to date - was first reported in Guinea in February.
It then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and a person who travelled from Liberia to Nigeria died of the virus shortly after arriving in Lagos last week.
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
- Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
- Fatality rate can reach 90%
- Incubation period is two to 21 days
- There is no vaccine or cure
- Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
- Fruit bats are considered to be virus' natural host