Diplomatic row flares up over treatment of Ghanian student in Prague Ebola scare

Ghana is readying to lodge a formal complaint with the Czech Foreign Ministry over the alleged poor treatment of one of its citizens during an Ebola scare last week. Last Saturday, medical workers and the police tracked the student, who had visible symptoms of a bad cold, to Prague’s main station, after he and three others allegedly failed to await health clearance at the city’s international airport. The fear was the student might be infected with Ebola.

Illustrative photo: CTK

Ghana has not been affected by the Ebola outbreak that has caused more than four thousand deaths in western Africa, but last Saturday in Prague officials were taking no chances. After a student from the African country, who was suffering from what appeared to be at least a bad cold, unexpectedly left Václav Havel Airport, medical officials and the police were called. They caught up with him at Prague’s main railway hub. The student cooperated and was covered by a black plastic sheet and escorted by wheelchair to a nearby ambulance by a medic in a full protective suit.

The fear of Ebola proved unfounded, but the image of the student covered up by the plastic sheet got traction not only in the mainstream press but also on youtube and other social networks and has now become the center of a diplomatic row. Both the BBC and Czech Radio reported on Thursday that Ghana is preparing to lodge a formal complaint over how it citizen was treated. First and foremost, some will question why the student wasn’t transferred to hospital properly – in a medical transportation bag if the threat was serious, rather than being covered by a sheet of plastic. On Saturday night, Health Ministry spokeswoman Štepánka Čechová suggested the move had been largely preventive.

“The student is from Ghana so it is apparent there is no reason to fear Ebola. Ghana has not been affected by the outbreak and does not border countries which have. At the same time, it is important to remain vigilant and the student could have some other infectious disease.”

The Czech Foreign Ministry said Thursday it had not received any complaint yet. But Czech Health Minister Svatopluk Němeček took the opportunity to address the situation, making clear he hoped any misunderstanding would be sorted out.

Svatopluk Němeček, photo: CTK

“I firmly believe the situation will be explained. Primarily, [the student] did not quite follow standard procedure.”

The BBC called the incident a Czech error: while health officials certainly appear to have mishandled the patient’s transfer, it is apparent that doing nothing or downplaying the danger of Ebola is not an option. By contrast, medical professionals in another scare the same evening in the town of Karlovy Vary, in the west of the country, handled the situation better. There, they transferred a woman suspected of having Ebola to hospital properly in a medical bio bag used to prevent infection. Like the Ghanian student, that patient was also released later the same evening, testing negative for the deadly disease.