ebola

Airline Passenger Hospitalized With Ebola-Like Symptoms in New Jersey

Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

While the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is slowing down, the U.S. may have another case on its hands. A woman was taken off a United Airlines flight at Newark Airport on Monday afternoon after vomiting and exhibiting a high fever during a flight from Brussels. She was identified only as a health-care practitioner who worked with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. The woman was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, though she did not have a fever by the time she was transported. Officials there said she will be kept there overnight “in an abundance of caution.”

NewJersey.com reports that Port Authority police wearing hazmat suits boarded the plane about 40 minutes after it landed and escorted the woman to an ambulance. Ten other people were asked to disembark, and the remaining passengers were given forms to fill out so authorities can get in touch with them over the next three weeks. “Everyone’s thinking Ebola,” said E.E. Charlton-Trujillo, who tweeted from the tarmac:

Newark Airport is one of five possible points of entry for passengers flying to the U.S. from Ebola-afflicted countries. Some medical personnel were said to be steering clear of the location after Kaci Hickox, a nurse returning from Sierra Leone, said Chris Christie was keeping her in an isolation tent against her will. The New Jersey governor is not feuding with anyone involved in the current Ebola scare, so far.

Traveler Hospitalized for Ebola Sympoms in N.J.