Ebola, camp worker, quarantine

The recent quarantine of a local Fort MacMurray camp worker has raised Ebola fears in this remote community. This all happened at the Hangingstone Project camp operated by Athabasca Oil on Monday, and it created the fear that Ebola could impact the community. The entire camp was put under lock down, and quarantine procedures were initiated, after the camp worker reported to the camp doctor with symptoms similar to the flu. The doctor is the one who initiated the quarantine, not Alberta Health Services, according to the AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson. The Ebola fears were caused by the fact that several other camp workers stated that the sick individual recently returned from South Africa where he had traveled on a trip. The worker was a contract employee with a local cleaning company, and was not employed by Athabasca Oil.

AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson explained that the quarantine was not recommended by AHS, and the lock down was eliminated later Monday afternoon after company officials discussed the matter and shared the fear of Ebola in a camp worker who was under quarantine. There was little apparent risk to the local Fort MacMurray community and the general public according to the provincial health officials, so the quarantine was lifted. There have been no suspected Ebola cases in Canada’s North Zone, and the worker did not visit any area of South Africa where the virus has been widespread. According to Williams “We know that the patient who sparked this certainly does not have Ebola. “By the looks of things it looks like the physician went above and beyond by recommending the quarantine, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”