| A Cuban man working in Guinea to help battle the deadly Ebola virus has died of cerebral malaria, the Cuban Health Ministry reported on Monday. The 60-year-old economist Jorge Juan Guerra Rodriguez from the Cuban central province of Sancti Spiritus died from Malaria and cerebral complications in Guinea, where he traveled with the island's medical brigade that arrived in that country on October 6 to fight the Ebola epidemic. Rodriguez began to present diarrhea on October 22, a symptom of both malaria and Ebola, before his health rapidly deteriorated. He was submitted to lab tests and Malaria was confirmed by doctors. Rodriguez began to present multi-organ malfunction and died on October 26. “Rodriguez never had any contacts with any Ebola treatment centers or with patients of that disease; however, he was submitted to two Ebola diagnostic tests whose results were negative,” the Health Ministry said. Cuba has sent a team of 256 health professionals, including 83 doctors and nurses, to Ebola-hit West African nations to help stem the spread of the deadly epidemic that has killed almost 4,900 people according to the World Health Organization (WHO) figures. Malaria also kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world each year, mainly children in Africa and it has similar symptoms to Ebola, however this last one is passed by bodily fluids, while malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes. The most recent outbreak began in Guinea, ravaging neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia, which is presently the most affected country. Source URL |