Heemskerk streets locked down for hours over man with tropical disease at GP practice
The emergency services locked down several streets in Heemskerk for several hours on Thursday evening after a man showed up at a GP practice with a possibly contagious tropical disease. Sources involved told NOS that it could be Lassa fever.
The 37-year-old man had visited a country in West Africa, the Veiligheidsregio Kennemerland reported. The GP determined that his symptoms resembled that of an infectious disease currently spreading in that country and alerted the emergency services.
The man was quarantined in the building where the practice is located. The emergency services locked down the building and cordoned off several streets around it.
At around 8:15 p.m., a special ambulance team arrived to transport him to the LUMC, where he was also quarantined. The man is conscious and responsive, and his symptoms are under control, said the Veiligheidsregio, which manages the region's health and emergency services.
The man had contact with five people - three employees of the GP practice and two ambulance workers. They were kept together in a room but were sent home at the end of the evening with instructions to contact the municipal health service GGD if they developed symptoms. The GGD will check in on them on Friday.
More detailed information, including whether the man has an infectious tropical disease and, if so, which one, is expected on Friday.
Lassa fever is caused by the Lassa virus and spreads through contact with saliva and blood. Nigeria is currently struggling with an outbreak.
According to the public health service RIVM, about 20 percent of people who are infected with the Lassa virus develop symptoms. These include headache, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
The RIVM considers the chance of Lassa fever spreading in the Netherlands as very small. Excluding this man, the disease has been diagnosed here three times in the past 40 years.
