Patient Being Monitored For Ebola Tests Negative
LOVELAND, Colo. (CBS4) - The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment announced shortly after 7 a.m. Thursday that a patient being tested for Ebola returned negative results.
The CDPHE laboratory completed the Ebola test at the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, which returned negative.
The unnamed patient was taken to the hospital in a specially equipped ambulance after becoming ill Wednesday night. The patient had recently traveled to an Ebola-affected country.
The European woman was flown to the University of Colorado Hospital on the Anschutz Medical Center Campus in Aurora.
The woman was visiting friends in Northern Colorado when she started to get a fever. Although the woman is European, she lives along Africa's Ivory Coast and has visited countries where Ebola is present.
When she started to feel sick, her travel history prompted doctors to go into Ebola protocol. After she tested negative for Ebola, she was transferred to University Hospital where doctors will continue to monitor her, according to Ebola protocol.
"Ebola doesn't necessarily come in saying, 'I have Ebola,' usually they are very non-specific symptoms which can mimic the flu, mimic a urinary tract infection, it can mimic many things," said University of Colorado Hospital Dr. Michelle Barron.
The State of Colorado monitors people who come into the state after visiting Ebola-affected countries. Since August 2014, 175 travelers have been monitored.