Zimbabwean student suspected to have contracted the deadly Ebola

KUCHING, Sept 15, 2014: A 24-year-old Zimbabwean student is under investigation for the deadly Ebola and has been admitted at an isolation ward of the Sarawak General Hospital since last night.

He sought treatment at a private hospital on Saturday after developing cough and high fever and experiencing severe body ache - among the early symptoms related to Ebola.

The student of a private university here had admitted that he had met with a group of Nigerian students who had just returned to Sarawak from their home country.

"The student had sought treatment at the private hospital here as he had developed the symptoms after having contacts with the Nigerian students," Assistant Minister of Public Health Jerip Susil told a press conference this afternoon.

He said the private hospital then referred him to the Sarawak General Hospital where he is being placed in an isolated ward.

However, the Nigerian students were found to be in good health, but the state health authority is keeping them in isolation at the campus for the time being pending further medical checks on them.

"Even though they are healthy we also do an extensive investigation on all the Nigerian students who had gone back to Nigeria and come back to our State," Dr Jerip said.

He explained that samples obtained from the affected student were currently being analysed by the State Epidemiology Unit and it might take at least about a week before the result from the analysis could be obtained.

He urged the public not to panic as the State Medical Department was taking all the required disease preventive measures.

"We want to be very sure and that is why we are putting ourselves in a high precautionary state," he added.

Ebola has killed about 2,500 in some African countries over the last few months. There is no known cure for the disease which also kill monkeys.