A patient isolated at a Manhattan hospital tested negative for the Ebola virus, health officials said Wednesday.
“We would like to report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have determined that the patient kept in isolation since Monday, August 4, 2014 at The Mount Sinai Hospital has tested negative for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD),” according to a statement from Mount Sinai Hospital.
“The patient is in stable condition, is improving, and remains in the care of our physicians and nurses.”
The 40-year-old man had been isolated as a precaution since Monday when he was admitted with symptoms similar to the virus that has plagued residents of several countries in West Africa and several doctors and nurses who have treated them.
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, is considering declaring an international public health emergency as the death toll from the Ebola virus approaches 1,000, officials said.
The WHO said 932 people have died from the virulent virus through Monday, up from 887 reported just two days ago.
That number did not include the death of a nurse in Nigeria who died after treating someone believed to have contracted Ebola in Liberia, or a man from Saudi Arabia who died after a trip to Sierra Leone.
Nearly all of the deaths reported by the WHO have been in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, where more than 1,700 cases have been reported.
Travel restrictions associated with the disease have stranded a group of American students from Tuskegee University who were part of a study abroad program in Liberia. The six students have no health problems, but have been unable to return to the US because of flight restrictions.