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EBOLA

Ebola alarm strands flight in Copenhagen

Ebola suspicion left an arriving flight quarantined for over an hour at Copenhagen Airport on Saturday afternoon, Danish and Norwegian media reported.

Ebola alarm strands flight in Copenhagen
"It is best to be on the safe side," an airport spokeswoman said. File photo: News Øresund – Johan Wessman/Flickr
An SAS flight arrived at Copenhagen Airport from Paris on Saturday with a passenger whom flight personnel suspecting of possibly suffering from Ebola-like symptoms. 
 
“There was a French woman on board with flu symptoms and because she was in west Africa a month ago, we didn’t take any chances,” Copenhagen Airport spokeswoman Lea Holm told broadcaster DR.
 
Passengers were not allowed to leave the plane until a health inspector came on board to check on the woman. The inspector quickly ruled out Ebola and the flight was allowed to proceed to its gate. 
 
The ill woman was taken to an area hospital, Holm said. 
 
 
SAS confirmed the incident to Norwegian newspaper VG.
 
“It was put in isolation due to the suspicion that a passenger on board was infected with Ebola,” SAS spokeswoman Trine Kronmann-Mikkelsen told VG
 
The quarantine lasted under an hour and Holm said that the incident proved that Copenhagen Airport is prepared to handle a potential Ebola threat.
 
“Today we saw that our emergency procedures work. It is best to be on the safe side in these cases,” Holm told DR. 

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EBOLA

Ebola tests sold to Denmark recalled

The US Food and Drug Administration said that Ebola kits sent to Denmark and other countries could result in "life-threatening" false positives.

Ebola tests sold to Denmark recalled
Photo: Colourbox
US regulators have issued an international recall for a 10-minute Ebola blood test made by a California-based company, saying it has not been proven to work and could put lives at risk.
 
"A recall has been issued for the LuSys Laboratories, Inc., Ebola Virus One-Step Test Kits because the FDA has not cleared or approved the kits for use or sale," said the Food and Drug Administration in a statement emailed to reporters on Thursday.
 
"The results obtained from these test kits have not demonstrated to be accurate and should not be used as in vitro diagnostic tests for Ebola infection."
 
The recall was initially issued in mid-March and applies to test kits exported to Denmark, Sierra Leone and Canada between October 2014 and January 2015.
 
The FDA did not say how many tests were sent out.
 
The recall is described as a Class I, "the most serious type of recall and involve(s) situations in which there is a reasonable probability that use of these products will cause serious adverse health consequences or death," the FDA said.
 
"A false positive result may be life-threatening by potentially placing the patient in an isolation cohort with Ebola-infected patients."
 
Contacted by AFP, a company representative in San Diego said early trials have shown the test to be 86 percent accurate.
 
The problem with the FDA came down to a labeling error, he said. The equipment had not been properly labeled "for research purposes only."
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