A patient at the University of Kansas Hospital is being tested for the Ebola virus, the hospital said Monday afternoon.
The person, who had worked on a medical boat off Africa’s west coast, went to the hospital early Monday morning with a high fever and other symptoms, KU Hospital said in a statement.
The patient was isolated in an infectious disease unit for tests.
Lee Norman, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said the patient is at low to moderate risk of Ebola, according to the hospital, but it cannot rule out Ebola.
Hospital staff members wore protective equipment while seeing the patient, the hospital said, and will not treat other patients until the person’s diagnosis is complete. The patient is being treated in an area with its own ventilation system.
No other information about the patient was being released because of federal privacy laws.
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The case is the second time a patient has been tested for Ebola at KU Hospital. About a month and a half ago, a 23-year-old man who had been in Sierra Leone in Western Africa showed up at the hospital worried that he had Ebola.
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He had brutal chills, fever and muscle aches, all symptoms of Ebola. But tests showed the man was having a severe bout of malaria. He never had Ebola, later tests confirmed.
In a statement Oct. 3 released by the Mid-America Regional Council, 10 Kansas City area health departments said they were prepared to handle infectious diseases like Ebola.
Ebola has a 21-day incubation period. Infected people don’t become contagious until Ebola’s symptoms — fever, headache, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach ache and bleeding, and bruising — start to appear.
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Medical experts point to two essentials for stopping an infectious disease outbreak: Having adequate facilities to effectively isolate and care for infected people, and having personnel to locate and quarantine people who have been in contact with someone who’s infected.
KU Hospital has designated three intensive-care isolation rooms for Ebola patients. The rooms have negative-air-pressure ventilation systems, so air from the room won’t escape when the door is opened. As further protection, each isolation room has an anteroom; if its door is left open more than 30 seconds, an alarm sounds.
Anyone going into the isolation room will suit up in an impermeable gown, gloves that go up to the forearms, booties, a surgical mask and a plastic face shield.
About 15 nurses at KU Hospital have volunteered for special training in taking care of Ebola patients.
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