Malaysia Isolates Possible Ebola Patient

SHARON TANG

 SEP. 15, 2014

CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith via Wikimedia Commons

A hospital in Kuching, Sarawak has isolated a Zimbabwean university student who may have contracted Ebola.

The 24-year-old, who had recently come into contact with students from Nigeria, reported himself to a local specialist centre over the weekend complaining of coughing and fever.

Doctors referred him to the Sarawak General Hospital, which has placed him under observation.

He is the nation’s second suspected case of Ebola.

Malaysia’s first suspected case was reported in Perak last week. He has been cleared of the much-feared virus.

The Ebola outbreak is threatening to surge out of control, having claimed over 2,000 lives across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

However, its numbers cannot compared with deaths caused by mosquito-borne diseases — dengue for instance kills about 20,000 people each year.

In dengue-endemic Malaysia, the disease has killed over 130 people and infected some 68,000 people so far this year.