BRAINTREE - A man who recently visited Liberia is being assessed in a Boston hospital for a possible infection by the deadly Ebola virus, health officials said Sunday.
The man, whom officials have not identified, was taken by ambulance to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center late Sunday afternoon after his presence at a Braintree medical practice briefly shut down that facility earlier in the day.
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Dr. Kenneth Sands, senior vice president of the department of health care and quality at Beth Israel Deaconess, said in a news conference Sunday evening that medical staff would assess the man's symptoms over the next few hours and would test him for Ebola if appropriate.
Getting the results of that test from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would take 24 to 48 hours, Sands said.
'The assessment that this is really and truly an Ebola case has not been completed yet. It will be in the next few hours,' he said.
A patient in Braintree with Ebola-like symptoms was isolated and transported to Boston's Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center.
Beth Israel Deaconess has had a plan in place for dealing with potential Ebola patients for about two months, Sands said, and has assembled a team that is trained to deal with the virus. The patient has been placed in a section of the hospital within a protective barrier, isolated from the rest of the facility, he said.
'We are taking all necessary precautions in collaboration with the City of Boston and the Department of Public Health for the potential that this is suspected Ebola,' Sands said.
On Sunday afternoon, public safety officials briefly closed Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Braintree, because of the patient complained of a headache and muscle aches, according to a statement from Benjamin Kruskal, chief of infectious disease for the practice.
'Out of an abundance of caution we immediately notified authorities and the patient was securely removed from the building and put into an ambulance now headed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,' Kruskal said.
'The building was closed briefly but has now re-opened,' the statement said. 'We are working closely with the Department of Public Health who will determine next steps.'
Earlier Sunday, outside Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, police cruisers, fire trucks, and ambulances lined Grossman Drive, and the parking lot was cordoned off by yellow police tape.
'Ebola protocol is in place,' said Joe Zanca of Braintree Fire Department. 'We don't know if he actually has Ebola.'
William Cash, a Braintree firefighter, said 'no one is leaving.'
Public safety officials clustered near the parking lot entry, where a Braintree EMS ambulance sat with its lights flashing. Five minutes before 4 p.m. the ambulance circled the parking lot and left the facility headed south on Grossman Drive.
Minutes later a middle-aged man wearing a surgical mask and sitting upright on a stretcher was wheeled across Grossman Drive and into another waiting ambulance.
MORE COVERAGE:
* The Big Picture: Living with Ebola in West Africa
* Health worker tests positive for Ebola in Texas
Globe correspondents Jennifer Smith and Katy Rushlau contributed to this report.
