(Reuters) – An unidentified patient who was kept in isolation at a Philadelphia hospital while being tested for Ebola has been confirmed as not infected with the deadly virus, a hospital spokesman said on Wednesday.
“Conclusive testing has confirmed that the patient under evaluation at the Hospital University of Pennsylvania is not infected with Ebola virus,” Greg Richter, a senior communications officer for the medical center, said in a written statement.
“All hospital operations continue as usual, and there was no impact on other patients or visitors during this standard evaluation process,” Richter said.
The hospital had said it was conducting tests on the patient in an abundance of caution because the patient met the screening criteria for Ebola.
On average, the Ebola virus kills half of those infected with it, according to the World Health Organization. The virus, which was first discovered in 1976, had its largest and most complex outbreak in West Africa in 2014 through 2016.
Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien