Ebola Test Negative for Patient Returning to Sardinia

Negative test for the Ebola virus for the patient who returned to Sardinia from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The news arrived this morning, after the analyses conducted at the Spallanzani Institute in Rome, which is the national reference center for this infection. The Ministry of Health notes that "the risk in Italy remains very low".

In the meantime, the Regions are identifying their own reference centers, as provided for in the ministry's circular. Even in Europe, the probability of contracting Ebola is considered "very low", as written by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), but the increase in cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda still requires high surveillance and strong internal organization to promptly isolate any cases.

For this reason, the EU presidency of Cyprus has decided to convene an extraordinary videoconference of Health Ministers on June 5. It will discuss how to "address the recent Ebola epidemic in Central Africa" and "further preparedness and coordination measures among Member States".

The patient hospitalized in Cagliari is a Congolese citizen residing in the Sardinian capital, who had returned from Kinshasa to Fiumicino. After experiencing symptoms compatible with Ebola infection, he had called 118 and was taken in biocontainment to the Santissima Trinità hospital in Cagliari, where samples of his blood were taken and sent to the Spallanzani institute. The molecular analysis of the samples was completed overnight and the result arrived in the early hours of the morning.

Meanwhile, each Region is identifying its reference centers responsible for managing suspected cases. For Lazio, for example, it is Spallanzani; in Trentino, they are the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Service of the Bolzano Central Hospital and the Infectious Diseases department of the Santa Chiara hospital in Trento; in Liguria, San Martino in Genoa, in Basilicata, the San Carlo hospitals in Potenza and Madonna delle Grazie in Matera; in Puglia: the Policlinico and the Giovanni XXIII pediatric hospital of the same hospital company. The Cardarelli hospital in Campobasso is the reference center for Molise, while there are 11 support centers in Tuscany, the Cotugno in Naples for Campania, and the Policlinico in Palermo for Sicily.

In Africa, meanwhile, since the first case on April 24, updated data from the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo report 282 confirmed cases, 264 of which in the Ituri province. Nine confirmed cases in Uganda. The race for the vaccine has also begun, thanks to a total funding of over 60 million dollars from the Cepi coalition (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations). Research is at the starting line at the nonprofit organization Iavi (funded up to 3.2 million), the company Moderna (up to 50 million), and the British University of Oxford (up to 8.6 million).