Ontario patient with Ebola-like Symptoms Tests Negative

An Ontario patient has tested negative for Ebola at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

The patient, who had reportedly returned from West Africa 10 days earlier, was transferred from Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie with symptoms consistent with Ebola. Officials for Sunnybrook, though, said at the time that the case was low-risk.

The disease’s incubation period can range up to 21 days.

Testing lasted through Saturday night. Early Sunday morning results showed that the patient did not have what would have been Canada’s first confirmed case of the virus that’s been spreading through West Africa over the past year.

Sunnybrook is a designated Ebola referral hospital under Ontario’s preparedness plan.

Another Sunnybrook patient suffering from flu-like symptoms tested negative last month.

The death toll of the disease, which has mostly hit Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, is over 10,000 in more than 25,000 confirmed or suspected cases, according to the World Health Organization.

Agencies/Canadajournal