Teenager Isolated In Australia For Fear Of Ebola

A woman who recently travelled from West Africa to Australia is in isolation and has been tested for possible Ebola.

The patient, whose nationality has not been revealed, had developed a fever and is now at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

The 18-year-old was one of nine family members who had flown from Guinea to Queensland 11 days ago.

Officials were notified a few days before that their arrival and they were met at the airport.

The nine were then put into home quarantine in Brisbane, where eight of them remain, while the 18-year-old is now in hospital being assessed.

The patient, who was not a health worker, was coming to live in Australia permanently, say officials.

They said she did not have any known contact with anyone who was sick with Ebola in West Africa but came from an area that had a "reasonably large number of cases".

Queensland state chief health officer Jeannette Young said: "There is no risk to the community at all because she hasn't left the house or had any visitors in the time that she has been here in Brisbane."

The teenager has already had one test for Ebola and the results are expected in the coming hours.

The patient will then have a second test in three days' time, Ms Young added, saying it was unlikely she was suffering from Ebola.

She said Queensland health authorities were monitoring four families from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the vast majority of Ebola cases have occurred.

The number of Ebola infections has passed the 10,000 mark and the death toll is almost 5,000 worldwide, mainly in the three West African nations.

There have been no confirmed Ebola cases in Australia.