-Caveat Lector- ---------- Forwarded message --------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 http://news.excite.com/news/r/990805/12/science-health-virus?printstor =1 Second Man Quarantined In Berlin Ebola Scare Updated 12:33 PM ET August 5, 1999 By Deborah Cole BERLIN (Reuters) - A second man was in quarantine in Germany Thursday after a friend who accompanied him to West Africa was hospitalized in an isolation ward with a mystery illness doctors fear could be caused by the deadly Ebola virus. Health officials stressed the second man had so far shown no signs of illness. He returned Sunday from a two-week working trip to Ivory Coast with a 40-year-old filmmaker who was airlifted Tuesday to Berlin's isolation hospital. There was still no word Thursday afternoon on the results of blood tests on the sick man, identified as Olaf Ullmann from the eastern border town of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. Medical staff wore hermetically sealed suits and breathing apparatus as they treated him. They also were restricted to the medical complex. Ullmann was thought to be suffering from a viral hemorrhagic fever. Its symptoms are likely to have been caused one of by four potentially fatal tropical viruses -- Ebola, Marburg, lassa or dengue, medical experts said. Like all viruses there are no cures. All that can be done is to treat the symptoms and hope the patient pulls through. Ebola, which causes high fever and severe bleeding, is one of the most deadly viruses known. It killed 81 percent of victims in a 1995 outbreak in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Authorities erected a 6-foot-high fence around the ward where Ullmann was being treated, and security guards were deployed to patrol the area. The tough measures sparked frenzied media speculation about the case and whether he may have infected other passengers on the flights he took home from Africa. "Will his fellow passengers spread the virus around Europe, could tens of thousands of people already be affected?" asked Germany's mass-readership Bild newspaper. Health authorities said any threat that the man might have infected others on his flights from the Ivory Coast via Zurich to Berlin was minimal. Camera teams and photographers were lined up at the gate to the Charite treatment center from the early morning, trying to catch a glimpse of the man, whose bed is inside a plastic tent. Doctors on the wooded grounds of the hospital said they were frustrated by the media attention and the disruption. "This media circus is just what a patient in such a condition does not need," said Birgit Zippel, an asthma specialist. "There is no reason for this hysteria -- not for the general public and not for those of us working here." Swissair, the airline that flew the men and their partners back from Africa, said it had made its passenger lists available to the German health authorities and was able to identify who sat near the group. "But we have no decision on what the illness is and therefore what precautions to take as yet," Swissair spokesman Erwin Schaerer told Reuters. He said he had no knowledge of other passengers being contacted. The cameraman's wife was not in quarantine, nor was the girlfriend of the second man. Both were being carefully monitored along with the medical staff who attended the cameraman in his home town before he was transferred by helicopter to Berlin. "He was pretty exhausted but we were all exhausted and we couldn't possibly imagine that something might be wrong with him," Ullmann's wife Kordula told Reuters. Two help lines were set up to answer the public's questions. danr SHALOM! \< \> \) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
