Ebola tests come back negative for woman taken to Brisbane hospital

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Woman aged 18 had shown signs of fever after arriving from west Africa with her family

An isolation room at the infectious diseases unit at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
An isolation room at the infectious diseases unit at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Test results for a woman suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus have come back negative.

A spokeswoman for Queensland Health confirmed the result of initial tests on Monday morning.

The woman, 18, arrived in Australia from west Africa about 12 days ago with eight members of her extended family.

All of the family members were placed in home quarantine immediately after their arrival.

The woman was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital after showing signs of fever on Saturday and placed in an isolation unit.

The six children and two adults she travelled with were “quite safe” and in home quarantine, Queensland’s chief medical officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said on Sunday.

The woman had not had any known contact with anyone in west Africa who was sick with Ebola, but she did come from an area with a reasonably large number of cases, Young said.