Ebola tests results came back negative for a patient at New York City's Bellevue Hospital who had traveled to the U.S. from the West African nation of Mali and was showing Ebola-related symptoms.
The patient will remain in isolation, according to a joint statement from the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., which oversees Bellevue. An Ebola test was administered earlier today after the patient was brought into Bellevue on a suspicion that he might have Ebola. The chances of becoming infected with Ebola in Mali are slim—health officials there have reported a total of only six cases in the latest outbreak, with five deaths, according to statistics released Thursday by the World Health Organization.
No further details were released regarding the patient's condition. If the individual had tested positive for Ebola, he or she would have become the fifth case diagnosed in the U.S. and the second treated at Bellevue. Dr. Craig Spencer, a Doctors Without Borders physician who contracted the disease while treating patients in Guinea, was released from Bellevue this month after recovering from the deadly virus.
As of Nov. 20, there have been over 15,000 reported Ebola cases since the outbreak began in West Africa—roughly 60% of which are laboratory-confirmed—with more than 5,000 deaths, according to statistics from WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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