The 57-year-old volunteer nurse with the Red Cross had spent a month looking after Ebola patients in Sierra Leone

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A Red Cross nurse in far north Queensland is undergoing tests in an isolation unit to see if she is suffering from Australia’s first case of Ebola.

The nurse, named in the media as Sue-Ellen Kovack, 57, returned to Australia on Tuesday after a month working in Sierra Leone, one of the countries hardest hit by the epidemic which has so far claimed almost 3,900 lives across five west African countries.

She was under observation in Cairns hospital, Queensland’s chief health officer, Jeanette Young, confirmed.

She had been kept in home isolation and was admitted to hospital with a low-grade fever on Thursday.

Young emphasised there was zero risk to the Cairns community of infection as the nurse had followed protocols when returning to Australia.

“She has not been out in the community in Cairns. She has been at home, isolated in her own home, testing herself,” she said.

The head of the Australian Red Cross international program, Peter Walton, said the nurse remained upbeat despite her situation.



“She’s doing well, but obviously she just has to play a bit of a waiting game at the moment,” he said.

Walton said it was vital Red Cross aid workers were available to help combat the Ebola crisis, but everything possible was done to reduce the risk to them.



“It’s a tribute to the bravery and courage of many health workers and aid workers that they do go to very difficult environments,” he said.



“We do all we can to mitigate all the risks attached to that.



“But certainly given a situation and an epidemic such as Ebola, it’s absolutely imperative that we do our part to try to contain it.”



He said the nurse was well-regarded and had followed stringent isolation procedures on returning from west Africa a week ago.



“She went over to west Africa as a clinical nurse, and very well-regarded professional in that regard,” Walton told reporters.



“I think it’s a tribute to her professionalism that she has followed that to the ledger of the guidelines, and hence why she presented to Queensland Health authorities.”

Young saluted the nurse’s courage in travelling to Sierra Leone to treat Ebola patients. “I think she’s an amazing lady to go to Africa and provide that service,” Young said.

She said Ebola was contracted through contact with excretions such as blood, vomiting and diarrhea, and, since the nurse had exhibited none of those symptoms, there was no risk she had infected anyone else, if she did have Ebola.

Blood was taken from Kovack at Cairns hospital on Thursday afternoon and flown to Brisbane to be tested. The results would be known either late on Thursday night or in the early hours of Friday morning.

When asked how likely it was the woman did have the virus, Young responded: “I am treating it as if it was, because I don’t know how likely it is. Because she has been in Sierra Leone looking after people sick with Ebola, there is potential there that’s why we are treating it seriously.”

Queensland Health is also monitoring a doctor in home isolation in south Brisbane who has returned from treating Ebola patients overseas.

Young said there were “absolutely no concerns” for any passengers who were on the same plane as the woman as she returned to Australia because she was had no symptoms when she flew.

“Ebola is very difficult to transmit, it’s not like flu,” she said.

Several Red Cross workers have travelled from Australia to West Africa in the past few months to work with Ebola patients.

Walton, told the ABC last month the Red Cross was reaching more than 10m people in West Africa with information and education about Ebola.

“Since people first became sick with Ebola, over 1,500 trained Red Cross volunteers have been working around the clock to help people understand how they can protect themselves and prevent further spread of the disease,” he said.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, on Wednesday called on countries to pull their weight in the battle to halt Ebola.

“Smaller countries have stepped up to the plate – some quite remarkably,” he said.

“Some smaller countries are contributing way above their per capita population. But the fact is more countries can and must step up to make their contributions felt.”

Kerry referred to US State Department figures showing Australia had contributed US$7.5m ($8.5m) to the effort, more than Germany (US$3.2m) or Japan (US$3m), but much less than the Netherlands (US$21m) or Canada (US$31.9m). Australia has subsequently announced a further contribution of $10m.

The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, has cited the difficulty of repatriating health workers safely as a reason for not sending them to west Africa.

On Thursday, Abbott maintained there was no need to send Australian health officials to the region to help contain the epidemic.

“As I understand things the public health systems in some of the west African countries are all but overwhelmed and there’s really not much point deploying Australian personnel, over and above those that are already there with NGOs, into a situation without a clear plan and that’s what we need.”

Bob Katter, whose electorate of Kennedy takes in part of Cairns, used the scare to criticise the protocols of the Australian government, saying any person who went to an Ebola-affected country should be quarantined in government facilities for three weeks.

“The incomprehensive [sic] irresponsibility of the authorities in this, if you want a visa to go to an Ebola-infected country then when you come back to Australia you must go into quarantined isolation,” he said.

“We love these people, and we honour these Australians for being self-sacrificing, but compared to the risk they create for our country – it is not remotely comparable. One person’s moral and humanitarian ambitions are being carried out at a very grave cost to Australia.”

Kerry said the State Department figures showed “the very real need for more countries to move resources of specific kinds”.

“It is not just a question of sending people,” he said, “though it is vital to send people. But we need Ebola treatment units. We need healthcare workers. We need medevac capacity. We need mobile laboratories and staff.”

The shadow foreign minister, Tanya Plibersek, and the opposition health spokeswoman, Catherine King, were calling last week for Australia to send people to West Africa to help treat patients and provide expertise.

Australian quarantine officers have held six people suspected of having Ebola at airports after interviewing 651 travellers between August and 1 October as part of Australia’s efforts to keep the disease out of the country.