Ebola outbreak: UK scare as 'feverish' man isolated at Essex hospital

Man isolated at Colchester hospital with fever following return from Africa, but it is unlikely to be Ebola

Colchester Hospital has been put in special measures (PA)

An Essex hospital has placed a man with a fever in isolation who has recently returned to the UK from east Africa.

The man, thought to be in his 50s, was admitted to Colchester General on Saturday morning.

The hospital has said it is isolating him as a precaution, and believe "it is very, very, very unlikely to be Ebola as he has not been to any of the countries where it is reported."

The man had been in Kenya in east Africa, and the only African countries Ebola has been reported in are in the west: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.

He is said not have been in contact with anyone with Ebola, and so will not be tested for it. Instead, the tests are designed to determine whether he has another tropical illness.

A spokesperson for the hospital said: "The consultant in charge of A&E alerted Public Health England and the patient was put into the isolation unit of the emergency department.

"We understand he had been to swampy areas of Africa and he is being treated as someone who has a fever.

"He is being tested for parasite infections, malaria and viruses.

"Public Health England said there is no need to test him for Ebola because he is low risk."

The man is on a course of antibiotics and said to be stable and improving.

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Ebola has killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in west Africa. There have been no confirmed cases in the UK.

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