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 The patient was considered at a relatively low risk of infection.
Although recently in an area where Ebola transmission is widespread,
the person had no known contact with anyone who has had the disease,
said Laura McCasland, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento County Public
Health Department.
McCasland said she did not know precisely where or when the patient
had traveled in West Africa, the epicenter of the worst Ebola
epidemic on record, or why the individual was there or for how long.
The patient was transferred on Thursday morning to the University of
California-Davis Medical Center from Mercy General Hospital in
Sacramento, and was later listed in good condition, the medical
center said in statements.
The hospital said the patient was admitted after exhibiting
"symptoms consistent with Ebola infection," but did not elaborate.
Hospital spokeswoman Dorsey Griffith said the patient was being
tested for infection.
She declined to specify the symptoms exhibited but said they were
serious enough "that the patient was admitted as a suspected Ebola
patient." The individual was being treated in a special Ebola
isolation unit at the hospital, she said.
State epidemiologist Dr. Gil Chavez said in a separate statement
that an Ebola diagnosis had not been confirmed.
"Whenever there is a person displaying symptoms that may be Ebola,
who has recently traveled to Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea,
certain precautions are taken, including isolating the patient,
ruling out other infectious diseases and testing for Ebola if
warranted," he said.
The patient was transferred to UC Davis Medical Center because that
facility had been designated as a "priority hospital" for evaluating
and treating potential Ebola patients, the hospital said. The
medical center remained open and was operating as normal, it said.
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At least 10 people are known to have been treated for Ebola in the
United States, four of whom were diagnosed with the deadly disease
on U.S. soil, during a West African epidemic that has taken at least
8,800 lives, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Only two people are known to have contracted the virus in the United
States - two nurses who treated an Ebola patient from Liberia who
became sick while visiting in Dallas. That man, Thomas Duncan, later
died.
Dozens of others tested for Ebola in the United States after showing
possible signs of the disease or thought to have been exposed to the
virus have turned out not to have been infected.
(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles;
Editing by Sandra Maler, Eric Walsh and Peter Cooney)
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