New York child doesn’t have Ebola, initial test shows

A child in New York City tested negative for Ebola on Monday, health officials announced.

The child, who had recently been in the Ebola-affected nation of Guinea, took ill Sunday night and was isolated at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said. An initial test for the virus was conducted Monday.

Additional Ebola tests will be conducted to make sure the child does not have the virus, and the child will stay in isolation until those results come back, the health department said in a statement.

The patient did not have a fever when first examined at the hospital but developed one at about 7 a.m., the department said.

Earlier on Monday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters that the child’s mother was being quarantined at Bellevue and had “no symptoms whatsoever.”

The health department had said it was tracing the child’s contacts to identify anyone who might be at risk of the disease. The family “very, very recently returned from West Africa,” De Blasio told reporters, “so in terms of retracing steps it will be an easier process.”

About two hours before the test result was announced, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a call with reporters that the child’s “pattern of illness ... is not the pattern of illness we would expect to see” in someone with the virus.

Emergency personnel were wearing personal protective equipment when taking the child to the hospital, the health department said.

Before a doctor who had been treating patients in Guinea became sick with Ebola last week, dozens of patients in New York City had been tested and cleared.

The doctor’s case spurred the governors of New York and New Jersey to institute a strict quarantine of medical workers who had been treating patients in Ebola-affected nations.

But New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined rules Sunday that appeared less onerous than New Jersey’s quarantine of a returned health worker who objected to her quarantine.

On Monday morning, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the worker would be released from hospital quarantine after testing negative.

Times staff writer Tina Susman in New York contributed to this report.

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