A man in Brampton, Ontario was put into isolation at a hospital after he recently returned from Nigeria, and arrived with symptoms similar to Ebola.
The man was hospitalized at William Osler Health System’s Brampton Civic Hospital. The hospital was treating the man in isolation and took heightened measures, reported CBC News.
Microbiologists and infectious disease consultant Alison McGeer said it is unlikely that the disease would come to Canada.
“But it’s important that we are precautionary about it, that we have systems in place to detect people,” McGeer said.
Canada has a low risk of the disease spreading, due to how the country prepared, says microbiologist Jason Tetro.
According to CBC News, in March, a man returned from Liberia and became ill. He was suspected of having the illness and was immediately quarantined. Those around him were told to be aware if they displayed any symptoms for a 21 day period. Although the man tested negative, the country was still cautious.
“In truth, we’ve led the world when it comes to being prepared for these types of outbreaks,” Tetro said.
According to the AFP, Nigeria has nine confirmed cases of Ebola. A state of emergency was declared by Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday.
Ebola has caused almost 1,000 deaths, and 1,700 people have been infected since the start of the year. Liberia and Sierra Leone are just two of the countries with the highest number of cases.
On Friday, the World Health Organization called Ebola a global health crisis.