A girl has tested negative for the Ebola virus after falling ill earlier this week during a flight from Liberia to Chicago, hospital officials said late Thursday.
The girl, who has been discharged from the University of Chicago Medical Center, had been medically isolated since Tuesday after city health officials said she vomited on board a flight that arrived that day at O’Hare International Airport. She was screened by federal authorities and found to have no fever or other symptoms of Ebola other than dehydration, and no known contact with anyone who had the virus.
Though her condition improved, officials decided to test her for Ebola “out of an abundance of caution,” according to a statement from the newly formed Chicago Ebola Resource Network, a consortium of hospitals and the Chicago Department of Public Health.
An adult who traveled separately from Liberia was admitted to Rush University Medical Center, also for observation, after becoming ill aboard the plane.
The passenger reported having been diagnosed with typhoid fever in August but had a normal temperature and reported no known risk of exposure to Ebola during a screening, health officials said. The person was later moved out of a hospital isolation unit in Chicago, officials said Wednesday.