Dr. Lee Norman at Tuesday’s press briefing
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas Hospital officials say preliminary tests show a patient who arrived Monday with Ebola-like symptoms does not have the deadly disease.
Chief medical officer Dr. Lee Norman said Tuesday the man is believed instead to have another tropical disease common in central and western Africa, although doctors haven’t determined which one.
Norman says the patient was serving as a medic on a ship off Africa’s west coast when he became ill about a week ago and flew back to the U.S.
He says the ship services the oil industry, and that the medic had treated a number of people with tropical diseases, including typhoid.
The man, who lives in Kansas City, Kansas, is being treated in an isolated room at the hospital with its own air-handling system.
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital are expecting results of blood tests Tuesday that could determine if a patient has contracted the Ebola virus.
Chief medical officer Dr. Lee Norman announced Monday that the man is at low to moderate risk of having contracted the virus. He is being treated in isolation.
The patient arrived at the hospital Monday morning with significant weakness and diarrhea, and said he had previously had a fever. Norman said it was encouraging that the man did not have a fever or internal bleeding — two symptoms of Ebola.
The man worked recently as a medic on a commercial ship off Africa’s west coast. Norman said the man was exposed to typhoid but it was not clear if he also was exposed to Ebola