(Reuters) – A child being monitored for Ebola in a Chicago hospital has been discharged after testing negative for the virus, the state health agency said on Saturday.
Federal officials screening for Ebola at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago detected a fever in the child, who had been held in isolation at the University of Chicago Medical Center for monitoring since Friday.
“Tests by the Illinois Department of Public Health confirmed a negative result for Ebola,” the Illinois Department of Public Health said in a statement.
Hospital officials have given no details on the child, including age or sex, citing patient privacy laws.
The University of Chicago Medical Center is one of the U.S. hospitals designated as an Ebola treatment center by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ebola has killed nearly 7,000 people out of more than 18,600 infected, nearly all of them in the impoverished West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Four people since September have tested positive for Ebola in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are currently no cases of Ebola in the country.
There have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in Chicago.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; editing by Andrew Hay)