Elaborate Ebola claims all lies: CDC
Staff writer, with CNA
A suspected Ebola case reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
appears to be a hoax after a test on a young man hospitalized on Friday came
back negative, a health official said yesterday.
The 19-year-old student now faces a fine of between NT$10,000 and
NT$150,000 under the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), which requires people to provide factual information about communicable
diseases.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that the test was negative after samples were rushed to a lab in
Taipei early in the morning.
The young man’s story about traveling in Africa
and eating bat meat are now believed to have been entirely made up.
Chuang said earlier that a search based on the personal information
provided by the man yielded no record of him ever leaving Taiwan , despite claims that he had recently been
to Nigeria .
It turns out that he does not even have a passport, Chuang added.
The claim was also suspicious because Nigeria was declared Ebola-free in
October, even as other west African nations continue to battle the spread of
the virus.
It was not immediately clear why the young man had given false information
to doctors at Kaohsiung
Veterans General
Hospital , where he was
admitted late on Friday.
If the test results had come back positive, the man would have been the
nation’s first Ebola case.
The student, who is said to have taken an extended leave from school, has
shown no symptoms since being hospitalized and has given contradictory accounts
of his condition and purported travels, Chuang said.
The man told doctors in Greater Kaohsiung that he had recently traveled to
Nigeria ,
where he ate a meal made from bat meat. Bats are known to be carriers of the
Ebola virus, which has caused about 6,200 deaths this year, mainly in Guinea , Sierra
Leone and Liberia .
The man complained of a fever and other symptoms such as vomiting and
diarrhea, the hospital said.
Even though the man had not traveled to the three West African nations
still listed as having ongoing Ebola outbreaks, the hospital reported the
suspected case to the CDC at about midnight on Friday after careful evaluation,
Kaohsiung Department of Health official Tsai Wu-hsiung (蔡武雄) said.
As a precaution, the patient had been placed in a negative pressure
isolation ward, officials said.
Structure of the Lead:
when-yesterday
what-A suspected Ebola case reported to the Centers for Disease Control appears to be a hoax after a test on a young man hospitalized on Friday came back negative
who-not given
where-not given
why-not given
how-not given
Keywords:
1. hoax 惡作劇
2.factual 真實的
3.purported 聲稱的
I think the student shouldn't lie because Ebola isn't a funny joke, it's a serious issue all over the world now. Also we should be care about the disease if it appears in our living environment.
回覆刪除We will never know if he had told a lie. Maybe he really had some problems, and he was just afraid of that he infected Ebola. Taiwanese should be glad at that the man did't infect Ebola, or we may infect by the disease, and Taiwan will get in big trouble.
回覆刪除No matter what the man's reason is of tell a lie, without doubt, all the people are afraid of this fatal virus. This fatal virus should not be ignored. Hope everyone can pay more attention to Ebola and take action to fight it together.
回覆刪除