'Potential Ebola Patient' Admitted: University of Maryland Medical Center

One person was placed in isolation at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) in Baltimore Monday for Ebola testing, according to WJZ.

UPDATE (10:30 a.m. Tuesday)—Maryland Health Secretary Says Baltimore Patient Does Not Have Ebola

The medical center issued this statement at approximately 6:48 p.m. on Monday: “UMMC has accepted a transfer at the direction of [the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene] of a potential Ebola patient for further assessment.”

A spokesperson for the medical center declined to indicate where the patient transferred from and whether he/she had recently traveled, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The testing of the individual in Maryland comes the day that the state issued new guidelines for handling possible Ebola cases. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and state health officials announced Monday morning that screeners at airports would provide names and contact information for travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and the state would be coordinating daily contact with these travelers for three weeks regarding possible symptoms.

The patient currently being evaluated for Ebola in Baltimore will stay in UMMC’s emergency department in isolation and may be transferred to the hospital’s bio-containment unit, WJZ reported.

The person had “Ebola-like symptoms,” ABC 2 News reported.

Symptoms that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says require isolation are fever above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or vomiting, diarrhea, unexplained bleeding or unexplained bruising.

UMMC is one of three hospitals identified for Ebola treatment in Maryland, according to WBAL, which said others include Johns Hopkins Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Four people in the U.S. have been confirmed to have Ebola, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus—concentrated in West Africa, where nearly 5,000 people have died from it—was first diagnosed in Thomas Eric Duncan in the U.S. on Sept. 30 in Dallas, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Duncan died in early October.

Ebola can only be transmitted through blood, bodily fluids, contaminated objects (e.g., needles) and infected animals, the Centers for Disease Control reports.

One of those infected with Ebola in the U.S. was nurse Nina Pham, who cared for Duncan and was released last week from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda upon being declared Ebola free.

Related: Nurse Now Free of Ebola Released from NIH