A British man traveling to Macedonia died last Thursday, October 8, after showing some Ebola symptoms, sparking fears that the virus has already found its way in Great Britain.
According to reports, the British man, who was also traveling with someone, experienced fever. He later suffered from internal bleeding and vomiting, then died only after two hours of being brought to the hospital in Skopje, the country's capital.
The dead Briton, however, wasn't tested yet for the Ebola virus, although the Public Health England thinks that it was a form of hemorrhagic fever and not Ebola. Meanwhile, the health ministry of Macedonia Jovanka Kostovska mentioned in a press conference that they are going to perform tests on the dead body to confirm if he indeed has the virus.
As a precaution, his companion and the rest of the hotel where they stayed in Macedonia are currently under isolation. His traveling partner, aged 72, confirmed that they had not recently traveled to the virus-affected areas especially West Africa.
The death of the British man, however, didn't control the growing fears among the citizens in Great Britain and even the rest of Europe. Early this week, a Spanish nurse named Maria Teresa Romero Ramos became the first case of Ebola infection outside West Africa after she was exposed to two Ebola patients in the hospital where she worked. These patients, a priest and a missionary, later died of the disease.
Ramos is currently on a ventilator after her condition worsened and her internal organs began shutting down.
In Prague, another man is under strict observations for the same virus. He recently came from Liberia and is now showing some symptoms.
Because of the growing threat of the virus in Europe, the United Kingdom has modified its health screening process at airports. Travelers who came from affected areas will now go through a more comprehensive screening that included answering questionnaires and getting a thorough medical exam.