Child who became ill on plane tests negative for Ebola, leaves hospital

A child who fell ill aboard an airplane after visiting the west African nation of Liberia tested negative for the Ebola virus, the Illinois Department of Public Health said Thursday night.

The child was one of two patients placed in emergency medical care Tuesday after becoming ill aboard Chicago-bound flights. The patients, who were aboard separate flights, were whisked away to separate hospitals after their planes landed.

While doctors did not think the child had Ebola, they conducted a test Wednesday out of an “abundance of caution,” officials with the Chicago Ebola Resource Network said in a statement.

The child, who vomited once while aboard the plane, was discharged from the University of Chicago Medical Center.

The other patient, a man, was released from isolation at Rush University Medical Center on Wednesday after he showed no signs of having the deadly disease. The man, who had been diagnosed with typhoid fever in August, suffered from diarrhea and nausea while he was aboard his flight. He was not tested for the disease.