Canada’s top doctor says risk of Ebola remains low, protective measures in place

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Canada's top doctor provided an update today on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and what it means for us here at home. She says risk to people in Canada is considered to be low at this time, but they still have put protective measures in place. Eric Viano joins us live in studio with the latest. Eric. Emily, Dr. Joss Reimer says a person in Ontario tested negative for Ebola after returning from Ethiopia.

[00:00:26]She said this was a precaution after they had symptoms consistent with the disease and as an example of those protective measures that have recently been put into place.

[00:00:37]Both the initial testing that was conducted in Ontario as well as confirmatory testing at the National Microbiology Laboratory were negative.

[00:00:45]Canada's Chief Public Officer of Health used this example as a way Canada is responding to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. She says since Wednesday measures have been put in place. We have added additional screening questions on entry to the country. We've also brought additional staff into our most common ports of entry so that we do have quarantine officials quarantine officers, sorry, as well as other appropriate staff available to manage should anybody come to the border and demonstrate any risk factors that we would want to have more closely assessed. Meanwhile, decisions around a potential travel ban to and from affected areas are made by cabinet, but Reimer said she will be providing advice on the issue soon. There's a number of issues that are changing rapidly as we learn more about this outbreak and as so it's important that we look at how effective things like travel bans are.

[00:01:40]We need to be looking at whether or not there is any evidence that the outbreak is escaping the area that it's currently concentrated.

[00:01:47]>> The World Health Organization has said while the risk of Ebola in the region it's affecting is very high, the global risk remains low. One expert says there are multiple reasons why the outbreak got so bad in the affected region, but a big one was it was not detected early.

[00:02:03]It was the Bundibugyo strain, not the Zaire strain, and the tests were initially negative until someone sent it to a reference laboratory that didn't pause and said, "Yeah, this is Ebola virus. It's the Bundibugyo strain."

[00:02:17]And and that's why this has been grumbling along for likely several weeks.

[00:02:22]Canada's Public Health Agency is asking travelers to monitor and report any symptoms consistent with the virus.

[00:02:28]Early symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, muscle aches, and weakness.

[00:02:33]And then where it gets kind of tricky is is when people get into sort of what we think of dramatically. And initially, it's vomiting, diarrhea, sort of organ shutdown, dehydration, and then you can get the more dramatic sort of bleeding manifestations at quite a late stage.

[00:02:49]Canada's top doctor also provided an update on hantavirus. She said there has been no other confirmed cases in Canada since one last month. She adds all high-risk individuals are being monitored.