A patient at a California hospital has been placed in isolation and is being tested for possible exposure to the Ebola virus, according to multiple reports.
The CDC will test blood samples taken from the patient, who is at the Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center.
While results won’t be available for several days, the patient is being kept in isolation as a precaution, according to CBS Sacramento.
“In order to protect our patients, staff and physicians, even though infection with the virus is unconfirmed, we are taking the actions recommended by the CDC as a precaution, just as we do for other patients with a suspected infectious disease,” Kaiser infectious diseases specialist Stephen Parodi said in a statement cited by News10. “This includes isolation of the patient in a specially equipped negative pressure room and the use of personal protective equipment by trained staff, coordinated with infectious disease specialists.”
The patient has not been identified. It’s not yet clear how he or she may have come into possible contact with the virus.
While there have been several cases of suspected Ebola reported at U.S. hospitals, so far all have tested negative.
Along with the patient in Sacramento, a woman in New Mexico is also being kept in isolation while awaiting test results. She developed fever, muscle aches, headache and a sore throat after returning home from a teaching assignment in Sierra Leone, Time reported.
In addition, two Americans are being treated for Ebola at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after becoming infected while working with patients in Africa.
Symptoms, which include fever, headache, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting and unexplained bleeding and bruises, can appear in as little as two days and as much as 21 days after exposure, according to the CDC.
The current outbreak has caused at least 760 confirmed deaths, with hundreds of other deaths in which the disease is suspected, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization.
In addition, there are 2,240 cases in which the disease is confirmed, probable or suspected.
