JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Nigerian nurse visiting Israel who was quarantined in Jerusalem for fear she may have contracted Ebola does not have the deadly virus.
Doctors determined on Saturday that the woman, a tourist who works in Nigeria’s public health system, had an infection of the digestive tract, which improved after she was given antibiotics, according to reports.
She had arrived in Israel several days ago and was admitted Wednesday to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem with a high fever. She was quarantined on Friday.
The World Health Organization said Thursday that more than 1,900 people have died in West Africa’s Ebola outbreak. There have been 3,500 confirmed or probable cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
More than 40 percent of the deaths have occurred in the last three weeks, WHO said, suggesting that the epidemic is fast outpacing efforts to control it, according to the BBC.
Symptoms of the virus, which spreads through bodily fluids, include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage. The fatality rate can reach 90 percent, though the current outbreak has a mortality rate of about 55 percent.
