Montreal patient being tested for Ebola virus after returning from West Africa

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MONTREAL — A patient has been placed in isolation at a Montreal hospital after showing symptoms consistent with the often deadly Ebola virus.

Dr. Karl Weiss, the director of infectious diseases at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, said the man recently returned from Guinea, one of the West African countries hit by an outbreak of the virus.

Weiss said test samples were sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

“The patient came to the hospital complaining of fever and other symptoms, and because of that we had no choice but to start putting our protocol in place and start implementing all the measures,” he said.

Weiss said other patients at the hospital aren’t at risk.

Earlier this month a patient at a hospital in Brampton, Ont. was also placed in isolation over fear the person had contracted the virus, but ended up testing negative.

That patient had recently returned from Nigeria.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has advised against all non-essential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

It also warned of a small number of confirmed and suspected cases reported in Lagos, Nigeria.

More than 1,400 people have died so far in what’s being called the largest Ebola outbreak on record.

Transmission of Ebola from person to person is largely through direct contact with blood and body fluids.