New Delhi: A Nigerian national has been kept under observation at a city hospital after his ELISA blood test for Ebola virus done at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) here was stated to be inconclusive.
The 79-year-old Nigerian national was among three persons from the country who were admitted yesterday to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital here for screening.
Blood samples of the 79-year-old have now been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. “The 79-year-old male continues to be under observation.
His test reports are awaited,” said Health Ministry officials.
He has been kept in the Ebola ICU at the hospital. “His blood samples have been sent to NIV for RT-PCR (real-time polymerase chain reaction).
He was admitted to the hospital from the airport yesterday along with two other Nigerian nationals (aged 4 and 37), who were discharged today after they tested negative (for the virus),” said Dr HK Kar, medical superintendent of RML Hospital.
It is also learnt that the Indian national who was earlier admitted to a hospital in Bhilai has tested negative for the Ebola virus in tests done at NCDC.
Meanwhile, the quarantine-cum-isolation facility at Delhi airport has been made functional and all suspected Ebola cases would be sent there, ministry officials said.
Since yesterday evening, five persons of Indian origin— aged 38(M), 38(F), 7(M), 2 (F) and 31(F) -- have been admitted to the facility with all of them being found negative for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), the ministry said.
The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) is tracking such passengers, whose details are provided to them by the Airport Health Organisation, it added.
Today, 90 passengers were enrolled for follow up in their respective states through state IDSP units. A total of 267 passengers are at present being tracked. Most of these are in the states of Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the ministry said.
So far, more than 9,207 passengers from EVD affected countries have been screened at airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.
World Health Organisation has reported a total of 2,127 cases and 1,145 deaths (as of August 13) due to the Ebola virus.
