Deadly Ebola virus may have reached Latin America – African refugee in Brazil feared first case

FILE - This undated file image made available by the CDC shows the Ebola Virus. Hospitals around the country are already getting ample opportunities to test their infection control procedures due to a growing number of Ebola Virus infection false alarms. Across the U.S., one of the nation's largest ambulance companies has put together step-by-step instructions on how to wrap the interior of a rig with plastic sheeting while transporting a patient infected with Ebola. (AP Photo/CDC, File)

A Guinean man who traveled through Morocco and arrived in Cascavel in Brazil’s Paraná state on September 19 is suspected to have Ebola. If he does turn out to have the disease that’s ravaging countries in West Africa, it would be the first known case of a person in Latin America with the virus.

The 47-year-old man, Souleymane Bah, complained on Wednesday of a fever. He was immediately quarantined.

On Thursday, according to Brazil’s O Globo newspaper, one of the country's largest dailies, he was flown to Rio de Janeiro on a Brazilian Air Force plane.

According to officials at the country’s Health Ministry, doctors at the National Evandro Chagas Institute for Infectious Diseases will perform tests to confirm the diagnosis.

It has not been ruled out that Bah’s fever may be caused by malaria or yellow fever, diseases that start out with similar symptoms to that of the deadly hemorrhagic fever.

O Globo reported that the ambulance carrying Bah from the air base to the Institute got lost and had to ask for directions from pedestrians in Rio’s Manguinhos neighborhood.

Bah was granted refugee status on his arrival in Brazil and was issued an ID by the country’s immigration police that allows him to stay until September of next year.

Health officials said that the team in the Cascavel facility where Bah was being held will be monitored for symptoms of the disease for 21 days, the incubation period for the Ebola virus.