March 23--Santa Barbara County public health officials confirmed Monday that a woman who traveled overseas and was taken to a Los Angeles-area hospital for close monitoring does not have Ebola.
Tests and clinical evaluation showed the woman -- whose identity was not released -- does not have the disease. She had traveled to one of the African countries that have widespread Ebola epidemics and became ill.
The Santa Barbara County resident developed a fever and showed other symptoms of sickness during a 21-day Ebola screening program, which monitors those who have returned from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
County health officials took extra precautions to isolate the woman and also counseled the California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the case, public health department spokeswoman Susan Klein-Rothschild said.
The woman was transported to an undisclosed hospital in Los Angeles County in a specially prepared ambulance designed to protect health professionals from exposure.
