Suspected Ebola Patient Being Treated at Boston Hospital

[Atomic Cow]

Massachusetts General Hospital is treating a patient suspected of having contracted the Ebola virus, Public Affairs Officers Noah Brown has confirmed to Boston.com.

MGH posted a preliminary statement on its website Tuesday evening:

"At 2 p.m. today while undergoing routine monitoring by the Boston Public Health Commission, an individual, determined to be a person under investigation for Ebola virus disease, was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital for evaluation. As you know, the MGH has spent the past several months preparing in the event we should have a patient with suspected Ebola come to the hospital. The individual is now in a specially prepared area within the hospital. Diagnostic testing is under way. Again, a diagnosis of Ebola has not been confirmed.

As always, our focus is the health and safety of our patients, their families and our staff members. We want to reassure you that the hospital is safe. Even though it is unconfirmed that the individual has the Ebola virus, we are taking the actions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a precaution. We will continue to keep you updated as more information becomes available."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/12/02/suspected-ebola-patient-being-treated-boston-hospital/kjQngynamiuqmmLOi3lrVN/story.html

You can usually tell by the wording what the test results will be.  When the cases are not likely to be Ebola, they pretty much say that the odds of Ebola are low.  This time they have all but said the person has Ebola.

[Atomic Cow]

Live press conference:

Patient was admitted at 2:00PM meeting the definition of having a high probability of having Ebola, due to symptoms, having the possibility of being exposed to the virus, and was in a region where the virus is active.

The patient is in isolation, and not extremely ill at this time.

Initial test results will be available overnight, but cannot say yes or no for certain since it can provide false results (tend to be more false negative than false positive). The definitive tests take longer.

The hospital administrator pretty much just read his prepared talking points.  Refused to answer any questions like where the person came from, what their symptoms are, how long they've had symptoms, or even if the person is male, female, or the age.