Mumbai man suspected to have contracted Ebola virus

A Mumbai man, who had returned to Mumbai from Nigeria, after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, is suspected to be infected with the deadly Ebola virus, reports said today.

The person, a resident of Vasai, in Palghar district of Maharashtra, began experiencing EVD symptoms like body pains and diarrhoea after he returned to India. Since he was aware of the symptoms, he got in touch with the health department.

The case is, however, still under investigation and only after the tests will the doctors be able to say whether he has contracted the disease.

The man is being treated in the isolation ward of a government hospital by doctors. His samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology, Pune, for confirmation.

Meanwhile, the government on Sunday said India was on a high alert for the Ebola virus even as it denied reports that a Chennai resident had been afflicted with it.

The Maharashtra government has opened a centre in Jogeshwari, a Mumbai suburb, for treatment and management of any case of Ebola.

India has nearly 45,000 nationals living in the four Ebola-affected West African nations.

On Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa as an ''international health emergency''.

Ebola virus disease is a severe and often deadly illness in humans, caused by the Ebola virus. The disease has high mortality rate, killing up to 90 per cent of people who are infected.