A 'Suspected Ebola Patient' Visits Tajrish Hospital in Tehran

The head of Shahid Tajrish Hospital announced on Tuesday, January 17, that a patient suspected of having the Ebola virus had visited the hospital, while adding that "it cannot be said with certainty that this individual is infected with Ebola." Bahram Mofid, in an interview with the AANA news agency, affiliated with Azad University, emphasized: "Hospital staff have provided treatment for this individual, and it is not certain that he is infected with this disease." Behrouz Hashemi, the deputy for treatment at Shahid Tajrish Hospital, also told the news agency: "Yesterday, a 25-year-old man suspected of Ebola visited Shahid Tajrish Hospital, and the clinical symptoms of this patient were very close to those of Ebola." He added: "However, after consulting and coordinating with Dr. Mahmoud Nabavi, the deputy of the Center for Communicable Disease Management at the Ministry of Health, and considering that this individual has not traveled abroad, his infection with Ebola has not been confirmed." According to Mr. Hashemi, this individual left Shahid Tajrish Hospital on Sunday afternoon and stated that he wanted to go to a private hospital. The deputy for treatment at Shahid Tajrish Hospital added: "Of course, this individual was only suspected of Ebola; otherwise, if he were truly infected with this disease, we would have transferred him to Shahid Yahyabad Hospital." Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi, Iran's Minister of Health, stated on October 23 that there is a possibility of Ebola entering the country and that a special laboratory has been equipped to potentially combat this disease, but there is no isolation room for this disease in Iran. He had previously assured the public on October 4 that there is "no cause for concern regarding the potential outbreak" of the two diseases, "Ebola" and "Corona" in the country, and that the pilgrimage trips to Saudi Arabia would not cause this disease in the country. Ebola still has no specific and approved medication or treatment, and the treatments and medications used against it are in experimental stages. The epicenter of this disease has been in West Africa, and of the 21,000 reported cases since June, more than 5,800 people have lost their lives, with the highest cases reported in Liberia with over 3,600 people, followed by Guinea and Sierra Leone, the other two West African countries.