The Irish authorities are conducting tests on the body of a man who returned to Ireland from Sierra Leone two weeks ago. Dessie Quinn (44) had been treated for malaria but was found dead earlier on Thursday. The results will be known on Friday.
Dr. Darina O’Flanagan, Head of the Health Services Executive's (HSE) Health Protection Surveillance Centre is quoted by the Irish Independent as saying;
We await the outcome of the laboratory tests before we will know whether or not this individual had contracted Ebola virus disease. The appropriate public health guidelines are being followed at every stage in this process as a precaution
The
Irish Mirror has a "live updates page" which gave a summary of the position at 8.40
A 44-year-old man has died in Donegal in the first suspected case of the Ebola virus in Ireland.
The man died at his parents' home on Wednesday night. He was reportedly being treated for malaria.
It's understood he was working in Sierra Leone and had returned home for a holiday some time last week.
He had been spotted out in public by a close pal - who said he saw the man at a festival in Mountcharles last week.
His remains were taken to Letterkenny Hospital where tests are being carried out to determine the cause of his death.
The Irish Mirror also reports his local priest who visited him before he died. He confirmed that the case was being treated as malaria until the sudden death. There does not seem to be much concern - given that there do not appear to be any contacts in isolation.
(For those unfamiliar with the geography of Ireland). County Donegal is, loosely, the "top left hand corner" of the island of Ireland. It is immediately west of Northern Ireland, part of the UK. It's location means that Mr Quinn could equally well have traveled from Sierra Leone via London and Belfast rather than Dublin or Cork.
The UK is the former colonial power in Sierra Leone. It was established as a homeland for freed black slaves (many of who sought protection from the British Army during the War of Independence) by a philanthropic organization in 1787. The colony based around Freetown initially began at the turn of the 18/19th centuries. Around the same time, freed American slaves started to migrate to similar outposts organized by philanthropists in neighboring Liberia, with disparate colonies coming together to form the roots of the current nation in the middle of the 19th century, the capital Monorovia being declared in 1838 and other of the outposts joining within the next 4 years.