Canada’s Ebola response: boost labs, flag at-risk passengers
A day after the first Ebola case was confirmed in the United States, officials said the Canadian government is flagging travellers entering this country from West Africa, preparing more labs to test for the virus, and educating doctors about symptoms to watch for.
“I want to assure all Canadians that the risk of Ebola remains low,” Dr. Gregory Taylor, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, said on Wednesday. “Our No. 1 priority is to ensure that Canadians are protected.”
Health Minister Rona Ambrose added that no cases in Canada have been confirmed.
There are no direct flights from West Africa to Canada, but Taylor said Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) staff will receive a notice on their computer screens when they scan a passport belonging to someone who has travelled through that region. Border agents will then ask whether the traveller feels ill.
Taylor didn’t say where the CBSA would get that precise travel information. But “the CBSA will provide travellers from Ebola-affected areas that are arriving in Canada with a clear opportunity to disclose if they are feeling unwell,” said spokesman Pierre Deveau.
Taylor said officials are also reminding airlines how to detect ill passengers.
If flight attendants suspect someone has symptoms of Ebola, they have been told to phone Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials, who dispatch a quarantine agent, normally a nurse. Taylor said that under the 2005 federal Quarantine Act, a PHAC or CBSA agent boards the plane and checks for symptoms.
If the agent believes the person has Ebola, Taylor said the passenger is either removed and put directly in an ambulance or is ordered to visit a doctor within three days, during which time the person is monitored. Neither agency would say what that monitoring entails.
Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg can test for Ebola, as can a lab in Quebec. Taylor said other labs will soon be able to do so as well in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, the more than $2.5 million in protective equipment Canada has donated to the World Health Organization continues to face delays in reaching West Africa, as do the 800 to 1,000 doses of the experimental vaccine ZMapp.
Taylor said in one example, face masks to protect health workers haven’t reached the region because of limited flights into affected countries.
The Public Health Agency of Canada sent a mobile laboratory to Sierra Leone in June, where three researchers were working to help diagnose ill people until an Ebola outbreak at their hotel.
Ambrose said the lab is still being used — a new team of three arrived shortly after — while Canadian doctors have arrived in the region to help with groups such as Doctors Without Borders.
The Canadian government has also donated $5.4 million to relief organizations.