St Louis Mo.....Ebola

HILLSBORO • Initial Ebola test results came back negative for a nurse being treated at Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City, state health officials announced Thursday evening.

Still, the nurse, who lives in Jefferson County, will continue to be monitored in isolation for 72 hours in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials said.

“We are just glad that it came back negative and hopefully the patient will have a full recovery from whatever it is she does have,” said Warren Robinson, director of Jefferson County’s Office of Emergency Management.

The nurse, whom officials declined to identify, had returned from Liberia on Nov. 13. She was working in the West African country in a “supporting role” in response to the Ebola outbreak but did not have direct contact with infected patients, Robinson said.

The nurse was being monitored daily by Jefferson County Health Department workers who traveled to her home, where she lives with her husband. When her fever spiked late Wednesday, the health department advised her to seek care.

Mercy officials knew late Wednesday that they would be receiving the nurse early Thursday.

Clinical staffers were awaiting the patient’s arrival Thursday morning at a separate 15-bed surgery facility on the hospital’s campus.

The patient never stepped inside the main hospital, a hospital source said.

Officials with the CDC were notified of the situation, a federal official told the Post-Dispatch.

On Thursday morning, the Missouri Highway Patrol transported a sample from the nurse to the state laboratory in Jefferson City for testing.

The laboratory test to confirm if a patient has Ebola takes four to six hours, said Dr. Nirav Patel, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at St. Louis University.

Around 6:30 p.m., state health officials announced the initial tests results were negative.

However, the woman will remain in isolation through Sunday. And if she still has symptoms on Saturday, the nurse will be retested for Ebola, officials said.

Douglas Dodson, director of the Jefferson County Health Department, said the situation made him realize “how small the world is.”

Jefferson County joins other communities across the country that have dealt with an Ebola scare.

The federal official said the CDC has received “hundreds and hundreds” of calls about possibly infected individuals returning from Ebola-stricken countries who turn out to be disease free.

For example, earlier in November, a North Carolina man developed a fever after returning from Liberia.

He tested negative for Ebola, the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, WCNC, reported.

In August, a Columbus, Ohio, woman tested negative for Ebola after showing signs of the illness following her return from West Africa, another NBC affiliate reported.

The same story played out in California and New Jersey.

Mercy Hospital Jefferson, about 35 miles south of downtown St. Louis, is at 1400 Highway 61 South and has 251 beds.

The hospital is part of the Chesterfield-based Catholic health care system Mercy Health. The health system operates 32 acute care hospitals in four states.