Wisconsin patient in isolation after testing negative for Ebola

[February 06, 2015]  By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - A preliminary test for the Ebola virus has come back negative for a patient who remains in isolation and doing well on Thursday at a Wisconsin hospital, health officials said.

The unidentified patient, whose age and gender have not been released, is being treated in the isolation unit at Meriter Hospital in the state capital Madison, according to hospital spokeswoman Leah Huibregtse.

The patient is "doing well" after a preliminary test came back negative for the Ebola virus, she said.

The patient came to the hospital on Monday after recently traveling, Huibregtse and the Department of Public Health for Madison and Dane County said.

"This is not an indication of Ebola virus disease and there is no risk to the public," the health department said in a statement.

At least 10 people are known to have been treated for Ebola in the United States, four of them diagnosed with it on U.S. soil, during a West African outbreak that has killed at least 8,900 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Will Dunham)

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