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 The patient had been monitored at the University of Nebraska Medical
Center since arriving on Jan. 4 after a flight from Sierra Leone to
Omaha, hospital officials said.
"We are happy to report the patient showed no clinical or laboratory
evidence of Ebola infection,” Phil Smith, medical director of the
Biocontainment Unit at the hospital, said in a statement. "The
patient was regularly tested for the disease since arriving here in
early January and every test came back negative for Ebola.”
The patient has left the Omaha area, the statement said.
The hospital did not disclose the age or gender of the patient, but
did release a statement from the person.
"The hardest part of the last few weeks was leaving my patients in
Sierra Leone, who were some of the sickest I have ever seen,” the
patient said. “I hope to return to West Africa to help in the fight
against Ebola but for now I am looking forward to spending some time
with my family and friends."
Three other patients were treated last year for Ebola in the
Biocontainment Unit last year, said hospital spokesman Taylor
Wilson. Two of those patients were treated successfully and a third,
who was gravely ill upon arrival, died.
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Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever. The latest outbreak, first identified
in Guinea's remote southeast in early 2014, has struck six West
African nations, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia bearing the
brunt of the more than 21,000 infections and more than 8,600 dead.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City; Editing by Mary
Wisniewski and Bill Trott)
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