Nunavik to follow Quebec’s response plan for Ebola virus

This handout image from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention shows a close-up of the Ebola virus, which has infected more than 9,000 people in West Africa. (IMAGE COURTESY OF CDC)

Should the Nunavik region ever have to deal with a case of infection by the Ebola virus, the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services says it will follow Quebec’s response plan.

In West Africa, the largest Ebola epidemic in history has infected more than 9,000 people and killed at least 4,800.

So far, no positive cases of Ebola have turned up in Canada.

And although the threat of an Ebola epidemic anywhere in Quebec is incredibly low, Quebec health officials say the province is prepared, and made public its response plan Oct. 20.

Since the early detection of potential cases reduces the risk of transmission, the province says that triage tools have been developed to help first responders, nurses, doctors and [Quebec’s tele-health line] Info-Santé operators identify and respond to potential cases of the virus.

“We are putting into place in our establishments the same procedures and high protocols as anywhere else in the province,” said the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

“Our medical teams are briefed on how to do the sorting of patients based on the possibility of an Ebola infection and how to process with the isolation of patients.”

To speed detection of the virus, samples from suspected cases are now sent to an infectious diseases laboratory in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., where results are made available within four hours.

From there, the samples go to the federal infection laboratory in Winnipeg for confirmation within 24 hours.

To date, Quebec has tested 11 possible cases of the virus, and all have come back negative.

According to Quebec’s plan, anyone travelling from an affected country, or who has been in contact with a traveller from an affected country, will be asked to watch for symptoms for 21 days. The individual would go into isolation at home at the first sign of flu-like symptoms.

In a region connected by air travel, the NRBHSS noted that the Nunavik health board cannot dictate how airlines would handle potential cases of the virus, given that airline companies do not fall under the health board’s management.

As part of the effort to keep Ebola out of Nunavut, health officials there said the territory is in discussions that could result in an aircraft with a suspected case of Ebola on board diverted from Iqaluit’s airport.

Instead, the aircraft would fly on to a major southern centre better equipped to deal with receiving and dealing with an Ebola case.

In Quebec, Montreal-bound travellers who present a risk would be quarantined at the city’s two designated health centres, the university hospital centres of Montreal and Ste-Justine.

But Quebec’s main message: the risk of the virus’ spread throughout the province remains very low.

“Remember that the Quebec situation differs greatly from that of West Africa, both in terms of health conditions and the very organization of the health system,” said Quebec health minister Gaetan Barrette in an Oct. 20 release. “We have to be aware of that so this doesn’t become too great a concern.”