Aussie hospital treats Ebola-suspect patient

 An Australian hospital was treating a patient who returned last month from the Democratic Republic of Congo as a suspected Ebola case on Thursday, although a doctor said the man was unlikely to have the deadly disease.

The 27-year-old man had been isolated and was being tested after arriving by ambulance at the Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland state with "an acute illness" on Thursday morning, the hospital's Director of Infectious Diseases John Gerrard said.

The man had returned to the Gold Coast tourist city from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Aug. 28.

The patient was being treated according to national and state protocols for isolation of patients potentially at risk of Ebola disease. The results of tests would be known late Thursday, Gerrard said.

"The risk of this patient having Ebola disease is extremely small," Gerrard told reporters. "I do not believe he has Ebola virus disease."

Gerrard said fever was a principal symptom of Ebola, yet the patient did not currently have a fever.

Democratic Republic of Congo, the country which the patient had visited, had a small Ebola outbreak unrelated to the major outbreak that had been blamed for more than 2,200 deaths throughout West Africa amid the worst outbreak of the disease in history, Gerrard said.

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