Today in #Ebolanoia: Man in isolation at Delhi airport after officials insist on testing his semen

(ht @ycrehore)

The first traveler to enter India with a known Ebola history — a 26-year-old Indian man who had been in Liberia, got sick, recovered and was given a medical certificate attesting to his non-recovery — was detained and forced to give blood and bodily fluid samples. His blood tested clean of virus. The rest, not so much…



Officials said three blood samples of the passenger, tested at NCDC between November 10-13, were found negative for Ebola virus disease in Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests. “While WHO and CDC guidelines state this as evidence of cure, in the current outbreak, it has been seen that the virus may continue to be positive in secretions like urine and semen for a longer time. So, before releasing him from quarantine, a decision was taken to test his other body fluids,” an official said. The semen sample analysed at NCDC on November 17 tested positive for Ebola virus by RT-PCR. The test for semen samples repeated at NIV the same day also tested positive.

The ministry statement said, “Currently, this person does not have any symptoms of the disease. However, he would be kept under isolation… till such time his body fluids test negative and he is found medically fit to be discharged. It is reiterated that the person concerned is a treated and cured case of Ebola virus disease. No cases of relapse of Ebola have been documented.”