Hotel Sealed after British Man with Ebola Symptoms Dies

A British man with Ebola-like symptoms has died in Macedonia and the hotel where he was staying has been sealed off and those thought to have had contact with him put under quarantine.

People look from the window of a quarantined hotel in Skopje October 9, 2014.

Reuters reports that a Health Ministry official said the man had arrived from Britain on Oct. 2 and had been rushed to hospital at 3 p.m. on Thursday, where he died several hours later. Dr. Jovanka Kostovska of the ministry's commission for infectious diseases said the man had been suffering from
fever, vomiting and internal bleeding, and that his condition had deteriorated rapidly.


Amid fears that the disease might spread in Europe, Kostovska told a news conference:

"These are all symptoms of Ebola, which raises suspicions with this patient."

It was unclear, however, whether the man had recently been to West Africa, where Ebola has killed nearly 4,000 people since March in the largest outbreak on record.

"Initially we had information that he had been to Nigeria, but then his friend told us they hadn't been anywhere," said Kostovska.

A government spokesman said later:

"Medical authorities have informed us that up till now they cannot confirm whether the patient who died had Ebola. But as a precaution, based on the protocol of the World Health Organisation, medical authorities are taking all measures as if the patient had been suffering from a highly infectious disease."

Authorities did not name the man, saying only that he was born in 1956. His Ebola diagnosis can't be confirmed until a German lab has completed its analysis.