A person who recently traveled to Liberia was taken to an Inglewood hospital overnight from Los Angeles International Airport and was being tested for Ebola, but the head of the county Public Health Department said Wednesday the person is not suspected of having the potentially deadly disease.
The person, who did not exhibit any symptoms of Ebola, was placed in isolation in the emergency room of Centinela Hospital Medical Center, according to the hospital.
Officials declined to discuss exactly what symptoms the person showed to lead to hospitalization. A hospital spokesman said the person apparently had “some sort of illness.”
“Ambulance personnel alerted the hospital prior to arrival so upon entry to the hospital campus, all (Centers for Disease Control) precautions were fully implemented,” according to a hospital statement. “The hospital has been preparing for the possibility of this situation for weeks and staff has been trained per CDC protocols.”
The patient will remain in isolation and was being tested in consultation with the CDC, hospital officials said.
“Our ER team did a precise and thorough job of implementing our full protocol,” hospital CEO Linda Bradley said. “They acted quickly and decisively in determining the status of the patient and contacted all necessary authorities. Myself and our Chief Medical Officer, Paryus Patel, have been in close communication with (the state Department of Public Health), CDC and all appropriate public health agencies.”
The hospital is still open, and steps are being taken to ensure the safety of patients, families and staff. Despite the patient’s isolation and observation, Los Angeles County interim Public Health Officer Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser insisted that the patient does not meet the criteria to even be considered a suspected case of Ebola. He said such a designation would require a person to not only have a travel history in an Ebola-affected area, but to also have a high fever.
Gunzenhauser declined to discuss what symptoms the patient had, but insisted the person was considered a “no-risk” case.
“What’s occurred today at Centinela Hospital is not unexpected and we expect more things like this will happen in the future,” he said. Gunzenhauser said he expected all tests on the patient to be completed within the next day, but it was unclear when the person might be released.
“There may be other clinical things going on with the patient,” he said. Gunzenhauser declined to provide any details about the patient’s symptoms that led to an ambulance being called to the airport, but he said he was still confident the patient was not at risk of Ebola.
“There may have been other symptoms the patient had,” he said. “… I just can’t disclose what those other symptoms might have been.”
The news came as federal authorities announced plans to begin an extra layer of screening at five U.S. airports for passengers arriving from the Ebola- affected nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. LAX is not among the airports that will have the screening.
Los Angeles County health officials noted earlier that LAX is generally not considered a gateway for passengers traveling from West Africa, since there are no direct flights between the two locations.
The enhanced screening — with customs officials observing arriving passengers for signs of illness — will being at New York’s JFK International Airport on Saturday. The screening will start next week at Washington-Dulles, Newark, Chicago-O’Hare and Atlanta international airports.
“We believe these new measures will fully protect the health of Americans, understanding that nothing we can do will get us to absolute zero risk until we end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said.
