Public health officials say patient in Quebec tests negative for Ebola

MONTREAL — A patient at a hospital in Quebec's Lanaudiere region has tested negative for Ebola, Quebec public health officials confirmed Wednesday.

The test results came back just a day after the patient was placed in isolation after informing authorities when symptoms began to show.

The patient started to have a fever and diarrhea 16 days after returning from an Ebola-stricken part of Africa, a time gap that considerably reduced the chances of infection.

Officials had said the individual was at a low risk of having the virus and standard isolation protocols were put in place to monitor the patient, whose gender and identity were not released.

This is the sixth time since the Ebola outbreak in Africa that authorities have isolated a patient in Quebec and none have turned out to have the deadly virus.

There have been no confirmed cases elsewhere in Canada.

Public health officials have said Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone infected with the virus. The current Ebola outbreak has claimed over 8,000 lives, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.