A 46-year-old woman in Columbus, Ohio has joined several Americans being tested for Ebola.
The disease is currently experiencing its biggest outbreak to date in West Africa, and has led to the isolation of people from the U.S. who traveled to the country. They are now being treated as potential patients, according to ABC News.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent a health alert to hospitals across the U.S. last week, telling them to ask patients about their travel history so they can find possible cases of Ebola. The CDC said it has so far tested blood samples from six different people with possible symptoms of the disease who recently traveled to West Africa.
The Ohio Department of Health said a sample from the Ohio woman was tested by the CDC, who discovered that she did not have Ebola, the New York Daily News reported. Health officials said she became sick while experiencing flu-like symptoms from Ebola after returning home from a recent trip to an unidentified country in West Africa. The health department added that she stayed in isolation at a Columbus hospital on Tuesday, and that she was "doing well."
The current Ebola outbreak is responsible for almost 900 deaths in four countries across West Africa.
A patient at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore was suspected on Friday of having Ebola, but it was a false alarm, and the patient was instead diagnosed with malaria, ABC News reported.
"This is a 'wake up' call for all of us to recognize that we are vulnerable because of the patients we serve and our location," said Dr. Trish Perl, a senior epidemiologist at the hospital.
In another case for the disease, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City announced Monday that it was treating a potential patient who recently came back from a trip to West Africa. The hospital said the patient was experiencing a high fever and gastrointestinal symptoms. Dr. Richard Besser, chief health and medical editor for ABC News, said, however, that these symptoms have a variety of causes.
"The steps they are taking are wise, given the travel history, but nothing about the symptoms is specific to Ebola," Besser said.
Another American, 59-year-old Nancy Writebol, has also been diagnosed with the disease after returning from Liberia on Tuesday, and was wheeled into Emory Hospital in Atlanta by people in hazmat suits, the New York Daily News reported. The hospital listed Writebol as being in serious, but stable condition.
