Employee at national disease lab in Winnipeg may have been exposed to Ebola

He said it’s standard procedure to check the full-body suits at least once a week. He would not speculate on how the seam split.

“The employee had worked in the suit previously and the suit was checked rigorously and it was a new suit.”

Officials said there was no contact with other workers before the employee realized the risk of possible infection.

The employee met with a doctor and was offered an experimental Ebola vaccine. Officials, citing privacy, wouldn’t say whether he received the vaccine.

The employee is in isolation and will be monitored for 21 days by local health officials.

The national lab works in the prevention, detection, control and reporting of foreign animal diseases and emerging diseases. Its research includes work on avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and classical swine fever.

Copps said that in this case a pig had been given a drug called interferon and then infected with Ebola to see if the drug would affect the outcome of the disease.

All the pigs had been anesthetized and were being moved by the employee at the time, he said.

“As we all know, Ebola virus is an important disease and as such, we’re trying to find pre-treatments to establish disease prevention in people.”

In July 2015, a study reported in the medical journal The Lancet said the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg had developed a vaccine protecting 100 per cent of the people who received it against the Ebola virus.

Ebola has killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in West Africa. The World Health Organization said earlier this year that Ebola is no longer an international health emergency, but added that flare-ups, at decreasing frequency, are expected.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with the blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen of those infected or of corpses. The virus is not airborne.

— By Jennifer Graham in Regina

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Employee at national disease lab in Winnipeg may have been exposed to Ebola

What's Happening