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The Department of Health (DH) today (November 9) updated the list of affected areas of Ebola virus disease in response to the World Health Organization (WHO), which declared on November 7 that Ebola virus transmission has been stopped in Sierra Leone.
According to the WHO, the outbreak in Sierra Leone has ended as 42 days, twice the maximum incubation period (21 days), have passed since the second negative test on September 25 of the last laboratory-confirmed case.
"Locally, doctors should pay attention to patients who travelled to Sierra Leone on or before November 7 who develop compatible symptoms within 21 days as they still meet the reporting criteria and are also statutorily required to be promptly notified to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the DH," a spokesman for the DH said.
"Other reporting criteria remain unchanged. We again urge the public to avoid unnecessary travel to Guinea to prevent Ebola," the spokesman added.
The CHP will issue letters to doctors and hospitals on the update.
The pages below have been updated accordingly:
* The CHP's Ebola page (www.chp.gov.hk/en/view_content/34199.html);
* The CHP's list of Ebola-affected areas and statistics (www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/evd_affected_area.pdf);
* The DH's Travel Health Service (www.travelhealth.gov.hk/eindex.html); and
* The Outbound Travel Alert page of the Security Bureau (www.sb.gov.hk/eng/ota).
Ends/Monday, November 9, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:39
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