A patient in a Swedish hospital who was tested earlier Tuesday forMaria Josephsson, head of the department of infectious diseases at Skane University Hospital in Malmö, told NBC News in an email early Tuesday that a patient in their care was showing"symptoms of fever," which prompted the test, in combination with"knowledge about what regions the patient has been visiting.
A woman and child wait to receive the Ebola vaccination in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug. 5, 2019.Ebola is a virus that causes an especially deadly and virulent form of hemorrhagic fever. Patients bleed internally and usually die of shock and the effects of high fever, vomiting and diarrhea. There is no proven treatment.
According to the World Health Organization, the virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the virus was discovered in 1976., the WHO said, with more than 2,000 lives lost and 3,000 confirmed infections since the outbreak was declared in August 2018.Nick Bailey is an editor on NBC News' London-based international desk.