Patient with Ebola symptoms transferred to Boston hospital



Kwan Keu Lai (C), a doctor with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, waits as she receives guidance from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructor Rupa Narra (R) on October 6, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES - Tags: HEALTH DISASTER POLITICS EDUCATION)



(Reuters) - A patient in Massachusetts who recently returned from Liberia and was displaying symptoms of Ebola was transferred from a medical clinic to a Boston hospital on Sunday, the hospital said.

The patient reported to the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates hospital in Braintree, Massachusetts, complaining of a headache and muscle aches, said Ben Kruskal, a physician and chief of infectious disease, in a statement.

The patient has not been confirmed to have the deadly virus.

"Out of an abundance of caution we immediately notified authorities and the patient was securely removed from the building and put into an ambulance now headed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center," Kruskal said.

Kruskal said the Braintree building was closed briefly but reopened. "We are working closely with the Department of Public Health who will determine next steps," he said.

Fire and ambulance services responded to the hospital and put an Ebola protocol in place, said William Cash of the Braintree Fire Department. He said the patient is a male.

The current Ebola outbreak, the worst on record of the disease, has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa.

The development in Massachusetts comes hours after the announcement that a Texas health worker contracted Ebola after treating a Liberian man who died of the disease at a Dallas hospital last week.

(Reporting by Kevin Murphyh in Kansas City, Peter Cooney in Washington and Frank McGurty in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Eric Walsh)
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