Patrice Gordon was one of 24 Canadian aid workers who travelled with the Red Cross to Ebola-affected countries.
A patient who tested negative for the Ebola virus this week in Kelowna is only one of more than a dozen B.C. health-care workers who have been or currently are in West Africa to fight a deadly outbreak of the disease, provincial health officials say.
And the monitoring and testing regime for that patient is likely to be used more widely in weeks and months to come as more health-care workers return from regions where the virus has killed thousands of people since an outbreak began earlier this year.
"I think it is important to note that there are a number of health-care workers who have returned from working with Ebola treatment centres in West Africa, and they have been monitored safely in the community, and there are a number of them being monitored at this time," deputy provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said on Tuesday in a conference call.
"So it is likely we may have something like this arise again, with another health-care worker, but at this point, we are confident this person is being managed safely and carefully."
Seven B.C. health-care workers – including the one in hospital in Kelowna – are being monitored after returning from West Africa, while another nine have completed the monitoring period and been cleared, Dr. Henry said.
The health-care worker who was tested this week had been at an Ebola care centre in Sierra Leone and was being monitored according to provincial protocols, which require a 21-day self-monitoring period and remaining within two hours of a hospital equipped for Ebola testing.
The worker, who returned to Canada on Christmas Day, felt mild flu-like symptoms on Sunday evening and reported to Kelowna General Hospital on Monday, where tests were conducted and the patient is in isolation. Preliminary results have been negative for Ebola, and additional tests are expected to confirm those results.
Provincial health officials, citing privacy regulations, would not give details about the worker's identity.
But the Canadian Red Cross, saying it had the patient's consent, identified her as Patrice Gordon, one of 24 Canadian aid workers who travelled with the Red Cross to Ebola-affected countries.
Mike Ertel, chief of staff at Kelowna General Hospital, read a statement from Ms. Gordon on the conference call, although he did not identify her at that time.
"I want to reassure my family and the public that I have absolute confidence that I am receiving the best of care in a fashion that fully protects the public and I want to encourage everyone to keep the focus where it belongs – back in West Africa," the statement said.
Stephane Michaud, a Red Cross senior manager for international operations, said in a statement that Ms. Gordon followed health safety protocols in Sierra Leone and did not have any known unprotected exposure to the Ebola virus.
On Monday, Ms. Gordon drove to hospital in Kelowna after she discovered she had a slightly raised temperature. Hospital staff were prepared for her arrival and took her into an isolation unit. She did not move through public areas of the hospital, the Red Cross said.
"At this time, she is taking the time to rest and focus on her health," Mr. Michaud said. "While being in isolation at the hospital is not an ideal situation, she said that she appreciates and respects the protocols in place and is impressed with how smooth the response has been."
In a Dec. 17 blog post, Ms. Gordon wrote of the death of a six-year-old girl at the centre at which she was working, saying the girl died while holding the hand of a team member dressed in full protective gear, and said: "I've learned that tears fog up my goggles."
On March 23, 2014, the World Health Organization's African Regional Office reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Guinea. Since then, cases have been reported in five additional West African countries.
As of Tuesday, the WHO said 19,497 cases of Ebola and 7,588 deaths have been reported.
Ebola virus is a severe, often fatal, illness in humans that is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads through human-to-human transmission.
In B.C., a provincial task force has been working for several months to set up systems to monitor, test and if necessary, treat, health-care workers who have come in contact with the virus.
"I do think it is very important to focus on the things we can do, and what we have been doing here in B.C. is making sure we can effectively care for and support health-care workers who are going over to help manage the outbreak in West Africa," Dr. Henry said.
Wendy Stueck