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.
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