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Patient to get 'rabies' results Woman tests positive for rabies
(about 9 hours later)
The results of tests on a woman suspected of having contracted rabies will be known later. A critically ill woman has contracted rabies, tests have confirmed.
The Eastern Health Board said it expected the results of tests at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital would be known on Monday afternoon. The Eastern Health Board said the risk to other people is "negligible". The woman is a patient in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
Initial tests were positive. The patient had been abroad but began to feel unwell after they had been home for several months. "There is no documented case of human-to-human transmission of rabies anywhere in the world," said the board.
The disease is extremely rare. The last case in Northern Ireland was in 1938. It added that the patient had previously been overseas in an area associated with rabies in animals and may have been bitten there.
The Eastern Health Board said it was leading a multi-agency investigation but stressed the risk to the wider community was "negligible". "The patient poses no risk to other patients or to visitors, and all its services are continuing as normal," a statement from the board said.
Communicable disease consultant Dr Maureen McCartney said it was "highly likely" that it was a case of rabies. "All necessary steps on infection control are in place for the protection of staff."
"It is an infectious disease in that it's a viral illness. However, you don't catch it from other people but from animals, most commonly rabid dogs. The disease is extremely rare and the last case in Northern Ireland was in 1938.
"We do see the occasional case in the UK brought in from countries where there is rabies or, vary rarely, from bat bites." The Eastern board said it was taking advice from the Health Protection Agency and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency.
The board and its partner agencies are taking advice from the Health Protection Agency and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency. Other agencies working with the board include the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture and the Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre (Northern Ireland).