The Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement late Tuesday
it is finalizing plans to bring the three-person mobile team from
Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory home from Sierra Leone.
The team is being recalled after three people staying at their hotel
were diagnosed with the Ebola virus. None of the team members had direct
contact with those diagnosed, and they are not displaying any signs of
illness, officials said.
The team members will remain in voluntary isolation and will be
monitored as they travel back to Canada. Those plans have not yet been
firmed up, PHAC said.
The United Nations health agency had earlier announced it was pulling
staff from a laboratory testing for the Ebola virus in Kailahun, in
Sierra Leone, after a Senegalese epidemiologist was infected.
"It's a temporary measure to take care of the welfare of our
remaining workers," WHO spokesperson Christy Feig told Reuters, without
specifying how long the measure would last. "After our assessment, they
will return."
The three Canadians were among six workers at the lab.There will be an investigation to see whether it was a routine
infection, or something to do with the lab's processes or equipment, WHO
said.
Meanwhile, there are five Canadian staff members with Doctors Without
Borders who
all remain in Sierra Leone.
The Ebola virus outbreak in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and
Nigeria is the largest ever with at least 1,427 deaths and 2,615
infected since March.
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