A patient hospitalized at Toronto General Hospital with Ebola-like symptoms has tested negative for the virus, health officials confirmed early Saturday.

The patient, admitted Thursday, had been placed in isolation as a precautionary measure before the tests – which were sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg – came back negative.

Gillian Howard, spokesperson for Toronto’s University Health Network, said early Saturday that the hospital followed an isolation protocol because the patient had a fever and had returned from Nigeria within the past 21 days.

Now that the tests have come back negative, the protocol will be discontinued.

“This means that the patient will not be isolated and staff caring for the patient will not be using special personal protective equipment for Ebola while providing care,” Howard said in a statement.

Howard said when travel history and any of the symptoms consistent with Ebola are present, the protocol requires staff to use full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when working with the patient.

That patient must also be placed in isolation and tested for Ebola, she said. These precautions must continue until the virus has been ruled out, symptoms resolve themselves, or a diagnosis of another illness is confirmed, she added.

“These protocols are designed to protect our staff, our patients and visitors to the hospital. In the coming months, there will be occasions at UHN and at hospitals throughout the GTA where such protocols are put into effect,” Howard said.

In an earlier email statement, the University Health Network said Ebola is one of "several diagnoses being considered at this point" for the patient.

Other hospitals in Montreal, St. Catherines and Brampton have also recently quarantined patients with flu-like symptoms who have returned from West Africa. These patients all tested negative for the Ebola virus.

Last week, a man in Texas tested positive for the Ebola virus. It’s also been reported that an American TV news cameraman working in Liberia tested positive for the virus and will be flown back to the U.S.

 

The Ebola virus has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization.