U.S. healthcare worker may have Ebola, Boston patient tests negative for virus

A Boston patient who was being monitored for Ebola-like symptoms does not appear to have the deadly virus, but is actually suffering from malaria, hospital officials said Wednesday.

The patient tested positive for malaria and negative in an initial test for Ebola.

The patient, who was not identified, was brought into Massachusetts General Hospital on Tuesday afternoon while suffering from a fever, according to a hospital spokesman.

The patient, who had been working in Liberia in a non-medical capacity, will undergo further tests to completely rule out the deadly virus, which has claimed roughly 6,000 lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea since March of this year.

“The patient is in good spirits and remains in a specially prepared isolated area within the hospital,” read a statement from the hospital.

On Wednesday afternoon, officials at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta said the facility will be receiving another patient who may have been exposed to the virus.

The patient, identified only as an American healthcare worker from West Africa, will be brought to Emory for “monitoring and observation to see if an infection has been acquired,” the statement read.

Hospital officials did not say when the patient would be arriving.

Ten other people have been treated for the deadly Ebola virus in the United States, and two have died. About 1,400 people in 44 states who have returned from affected African countries in the last 21 days are being actively monitored for the disease, a CDC spokesman told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday.

Times staff writer Javier Panzar contributed to this report.

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