Ebola: Cairns nurse leaves hospital after clearing second round of tests
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Version 0 of 1. A Cairns nurse who sparked an Ebola scare has left hospital after a second round of tests cleared her of having the virus. A spokesman for Cairns hospital said Sue Ellen Kovack went home early on Monday morning, after a second round of tests came back negative. The 57-year-old recently returned from Sierra Leone where she had been treating Ebola victims. The health scare came after she developed a low-grade fever. She will go back into isolation at home, as a precautionary measure, for two more weeks until she has completed the 21-day incubation period for Ebola. Kovack has spoken of her relief at being cleared, and says it proves protection and safety measures are working well. “I’ll be staying in precautionary isolation for the rest of the three weeks since I last had contact with patients in Sierra Leone,” she said in a statement. “The outpouring of support from my family, friends and so many Australians and others around the world has been overwhelming and really quite emotional for me.” She said waiting on test results, after she reported developing a fever on Thursday, had been very taxing and had distracted her from what she’d seen overseas. “... it has meant I’ve not had much time to fully process the challenges I had in West Africa, treating people sick with Ebola, seeing people die and helping to control this dreadful virus,” she said. |