TOKYO - Japan has quarantined a woman in her 70s on suspicions that she contracted the deadly and infectious Ebola virus in Congo, the Health Ministry said on Sunday .
Tests are being conducted by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the Health Ministry said it will promptly announce results.The Prime Minister's Office has set up an emergency response unit, and vows to do all it can to treat the patient and prevent secondary infections. Millions who work and study in Tokyo commute every day from Saitama, which is located less than an hour by train from the capital.
Victims typically show symptoms after an incubation period of anywhere from two to 21 days, though the average is seven to 10 days. The Ebola virus cannot spread before the onset of symptoms, and cannot be transmitted by air and by mosquitoes. But it can be spread by direct contact with blood or body fluids of an infected victim, or objects that are contaminated with fluids of an infected patient.