BREAKING: The Cairns nurse suspected of returning from Sierra Leone with #Ebola has tested negative.
Earlier:
Sue Ellen Kovack, 57, who has been working with the Red Cross in Sierra Leone with Ebola victims, returned home only on Tuesday and had been monitoring her health.
She developed a low grade fever this morning, contacted authorities and was admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young said the nurse was not otherwise ill. But the case was being treated as suspected Ebola and is currently being assessed by disease specialists at Cairns hospital.
Dr Young said the woman had been in home quarantine and had not been out in the Cairns community since she returned on Saturday.
“She’s not been out in the community in Cairns,” Dr Young said.
Dr Young said the nurse developed a “low-grade fever” on Thursday morning and went to Cairns Hospital about 1pm.
“She is not unwell at this point in time,” she said.
Dr Young said test results could be available as soon as Thursday evening or Friday afternoon.
“I am treating it as if it was [Ebola] … because there is potential and that’s why we’re treating it so seriously,” she said.
“While Ebola is a very serious disease, it is not highly contagious as it cannot be caught through coughing or sneezing; a person is not infectious until they are unwell with the disease.
“The risk of infection is extremely low unless there has been direct exposure to the bodily fluids of an infected person or animal such as vomit, blood or diarrhoea.”
Dr Young said a sample of the woman’s blood was being rushed from Cairns to Brisbane to be tested for the virus but the results would not be known until late night or early tomorrow morning.
“(When) she came back into the country, she was perfectly well,” Dr Young said in a press conference this afternoon.
“She hasn’t been out in the community at Cairns, she’s been isolated in her own home, testing herself homeisolated in her own home, testing herself.
“It wasn’t until this morning that she felt unwell. She rang up because developed a low grade fever of 37.6 degrees … that’s low grade we felt it important to come into hospital. We don’t know if she has (Ebola) but she has been exposed to people with the disease.”
Dr Young said it was virtually impossible for the nurse, a volunteer with the Australian Red Cross, to have infected members of the public, including fellow passengers on her flight home, because Ebola was “so hard to transmit.”
“The community has absolutely nothing to worry about because the Ebola virus is very difficult to transmit — you need to be exposed to secretions such as vomit, diarrhoea or blood and she doesn’t have any symptoms. There is absolutely no concern for any passenger on that plane, there is no risk to anyone on that plane.”
However, the nurse has a flatmate, who is being monitored for symptoms of the disease.
Dr Young said it was protocol for the nurse to be in home isolation for 21 days and checking her temperature twice a day because she had been working in West Africa.
Dr Young said the woman had done media interviews before she travelled there.
“I think she’s an amazing lady to go to West Africa,” she said.
Queensland health to make an announcement (7am AEST) Local time, (8am AEDT) in Cairns Hospital
Australia has investigated three suspected cases of Ebola previously.
A woman was released from quarantine at a Perth hospital on September 23 after being cleared of the disease.
The woman had attended a conference in Africa.
And a one-year-old child was cleared of any infection after being taken to a Melbourne hospital on September 19 with suspicious symptoms.
The child had returned to Australia from west Africa five days earlier.
A third suspected case on the Gold Coast was cleared by tests after a man claiming to have spent time in Africa complained of vague symptoms while in police custody