The condition of a woman found unconscious in a Saint John hotel room is still unknown, a day after the incident sparked an Ebola scare and subsequent lockdown at the hotel.
Saint John Fire Chief Kevin Clifford says hotel staff called 911 immediately after discovering the woman unconscious in her room.
“Shortly after 11 we received a call for help down at the Hilton. There was a person at the Hilton that was sick…we had some information on travel, we had a sick person, and based on that, we became concerned,” says Clifford.
Health officials say, although the woman recently travelled to West Africa, she did not travel to an area affected by Ebola, and the virus was ruled out. The lockdown was lifted around 5 p.m.
It isn’t known at this time what caused the woman to fall ill.
“That’s actually confidential information so I can’t actually release that,” says Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s deputy chief medical officer of health.
Russell says the risk of Ebola is low in Canada and protocols are in place to deal with infectious diseases.
“Those protocols are followed. If there is something unique or different and if there is not enough information, then they sort of use their judgment at the time,” she says.
The hotel’s general manager says staff are trained on how to deal with emergency cases. She says the hotel sees guests from all over the world, so they have to be ready to handle different types of illnesses.
“It was unpleasant, but it could have been far worse,” says Allison Fraser. “I think our concern now is the life and health of the guest and, of course, the family and colleagues that she was travelling with.”
The woman remains at the Saint John Regional Hospital. Health officials say she isn’t contagious, so no one at the hospital or hotel is at risk.
Sunday’s incident wasn’t the first time Canadian health officials have acted with caution in recent weeks. A number of individuals have been placed in quarantine until it was determined they weren't suffering from the virus.
Last Sunday, public health officials in Quebec confirmed a girl who developed a fever after returning from a trip to West Africa did not have Ebola.
A week before that, a patient at a Montreal hospital tested negative for the virus, and earlier in August, testing confirmed a patient in Ontario did not have Ebola.
Fever is a common symptom of the often deadly virus which has killed more than 1,800 people in the largest Ebola outbreak on record.
Transmission of Ebola from person to person is made through direct contact with blood and body fluids of a sick person.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Dunbar
