Ebola tests negative for Gatineau girl who remains in isolation

Tests on a young girl from Gatineau, Que., have come back negative for the Ebola virus after she was feeling ill upon returning from Sierra Leone, one of the west African countries hard hit by this year’s Ebola outbreak.

The girl was put in isolation at an undisclosed hospital after her family took her to a Gatineau emergency room on Friday with flu-like symptoms after visiting family in Sierra Leone.

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The tests, which were done in Winnipeg, came back negative on Saturday afternoon. The girl remains in isolation and she is in stable condition, according to health officials in western Quebec.

Dr. Jean-Pierre Courteau, medical officer of health for the Outaouais region, said in an interview with Radio-Canada they were cautious because of her symptoms but couldn’t go into detail.

He said they don’t believe she came into contact with anyone who had Ebola while in Sierra Leone.

Ebola is a viral disease spread by bodily fluids that causes fever, muscle pain, intense weakness and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

There is no cure and no licensed treatment or vaccine, so doctors manage cases by isolating patients and trying to help their immune systems fight it.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria​, with the WHO warning that it could eventually infect 20,000 people.

There have been no confirmed cases in Canada. A few people, who were placed under quarantine on the chance they contracted the virus, later tested negative.