The man called the health ministry in Delhi claiming he may be Ebola-infected. He was referred to the Maharashtra health department and discharged on Monday.

A man who got himself admitted in a civic-run hospital in Vasai suspecting himself to be affected by the Ebola virus was discharged by the hospital on Monday and the case dismissed as a false alarm.

Health department officials from the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation that falls in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region were stunned to receive a call from the Maharashtra health department about a suspected Ebola patient. “We immediately got in touch with the patient and admitted him to the civic-run Sir DM Petit Hospital in Vasai. But it has turned out to be a false alarm. We have given him his discharge papers today,” said Dr Sunil Lahane, deputy municipal commissioner and in-charge of the health department of the municipal corporation, while speaking to Firstpost.

“The patient, who returned from Nigeria, was suffering from diarrhoea for past 3-4 days, which is why he might have felt that he was infected by the Ebola virus. He panicked and called up health ministry in Delhi which got in touch with the Maharashtra health department who in turn asked us to look into the case expeditiously,” explained Lahane, adding that the civic body is taking all the necessary precautions required to tackle possible Ebola patients.

However, health officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that civic body has set aside ten beds each at the Jogeshwari Trauma hospital and Kasturba hospital in Chinchpokli to treat any possible patients in future..

“So far, we haven’t come across any patient having Ebola-related symptoms but we are fully prepared to tackle such patients. The suspected symptomatic patients with a travel history to four countries -Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria - will be admitted to one of these hospitals. The blood samples of suspected patients will be sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune,” said Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer of the BMC, speaking to Firstpost.