TOKYO, November 4 (RIA Novosti) – The Japanese Health and Transport Ministries announced on Tuesday that in the event of an Ebola case being registered in the country, private data on the patient will be made public, the Japanese NHK TV-channel reported Tuesday.
Ministries have decided that information concerning the age, gender and flight number of a patient suspected to have Ebola will be published at the stage where blood samples are sent for testing.
The first case of suspected Ebola virus in Japan occurred last Monday when a journalist who had spent two months in Liberia before travelling back to Japan, complained of symptoms. This case has triggered a decision by the Japanese authorities regarding the publishing of patients' personal data, as NHK put it.
Initially, the authorities decided not to publish any data that could indirectly provide personal information about the infected individual. Despite the journalist's negative blood test, the absence of personal data caused criticism from social commentators.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) latest estimates, out of a total of 13,567 reported cases, nearly 5,000 have died of the Ebola virus. The majority of lethal cases have been concentrated in three western African countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
