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| Ebola: Australian nurse returns negative blood test | Ebola: Australian nurse returns negative blood test |
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| An Australian nurse who has just returned from west Africa has returned a negative test result for Ebola. | |
| Sue Ellen Kovack was tested for the virus on Thursday after developing a low-grade fever upon her return to Australia after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. She was held in isolation at Cairns hospital and her blood samples were flown to Brisbane for testing. | |
| Queensland’s chief health officer, Jeannette Young, confirmed on Friday morning that the initial tests had returned a negative result. Kovack will continue to be held in hospital for at least 24 hours. She will be tested again at the weekend. | |
| “This is a necessary precaution given the patient has been to West Africa and has had a fever within the incubation period of 21 days,” Young said. “For the sake of her health and to follow due diligence, we want to be sure she is clear of Ebola virus disease as well as any other disease.” | “This is a necessary precaution given the patient has been to West Africa and has had a fever within the incubation period of 21 days,” Young said. “For the sake of her health and to follow due diligence, we want to be sure she is clear of Ebola virus disease as well as any other disease.” |
| Young said even if Kovack had tested positive for Ebola the wider community had not been at risk. Kovack had been held in home isolation since her return from Sierra Leone on Tuesday and had not developed the symptoms of Ebola which make it contagious, such as vomiting and diarrhoea. | |
| The head of the Australian Red Cross international program, Peter Walton, said Kovack had an “anxious wait” on Friday morning but was in good spirits while in isolation at Cairns hospital. He said she was aware of the intense media speculation and the discussion her case had caused in the wider community, including questions about whether Australian aid workers should be travelling to west Africa. | |
| “If we don’t make a contribution, the risk of this expanding and becoming much more than a regional concern is absolutely going to be the case,” he told ABC News 24. “So we should be doing more. And I think Australian aid workers like Sue Ellen are incredibly brave being at the frontline.” | |
| Walton said Kovack was a clinical nurse who had worked in a Red Cross Ebola treatment centre about 180km from Freetown. | |
| The Australian government has resisted calls to send health professionals to west Africa to help with the epidemic. | |
| “The worst-case scenarios are that it’s going to be keep doubling every three weeks [and] there will be over 1.4m people affected,” Walton said. “That is the worst-case scenario but more needs to be done. We certainly hope that won’t be the case.” | |
| Queensland’s premier, Campbell Newman, cautiously welcomed the news of Kovack’s initial negative result. “Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the patient involved,” he told reporters in Canberra, where he has travelled for a Council of Australian Governments meeting. | |
| Almost 4,000 people have died from Ebola in west Africa and Kovack was one of several Australians who have travelled to the region to help treat patients there. | |
| A doctor is in home isolation in south Brisbane after returning from treating Ebola patients overseas. |