A QUEENSLAND doctor tested for ebola after returning from aid work in West Africa has been discharged from hospital but faces a 21-day monitoring period.
Dr John Parker, from Golden Beach on the Sunshine Coast, was taken to Sydney’s Westmead Hospital after developing flu-like symptoms following his return from Sierra Leone.
Ebola has an incubation period from two to 21 days, most commonly eight to 10 days.
Dr Parker had been working in an Australian-run Ebola treatment clinic with Aspen Medical since last November.
NSW Health said Westmead’s Emerging Infections and Biohazard Response Unit laboratory had run tests and returned a negative result for Ebola virus disease.
A spokeswoman said Dr Parker had been discharged today after 24 hours in hospital.
His employer, Aspen Medical, said the GP would enter a 21-day self-monitoring period.
This is part of health protocol and includes twice-daily taking of temperature to check for fever.
It also advises against mixing with others, going to public places or travelling.
A spokesman for Aspen Medical said once the monitoring period was over, Dr Parker would be free to return to his normal job.
Dr Parker has more than 20 years’ experience as a GP and his many humanitarian missions with Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders have taken him to Rwanda, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda and Nigeria.
He is the first person this year to be tested for Ebola in New South Wales.
As of March 29, 25,213 cases and 10,460 Ebola deaths had been reported worldwide, the vast majority in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.