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Five on US flight cleared of Ebola

Five passengers taken off an Emirates flight from Dubai after it landed at Boston airport do not have Ebola, authorities say.

Five on US flight cleared of Ebola
Five on US flight cleared of Ebola

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Ebola has been ruled out for five people with flu-like symptoms who were evacuated from a passenger jet in Boston, officials say.

The flight was quarantined for about two hours on arrival from Dubai.

It was at least the third Ebola scare on a commercial flight within the US in just days, but none of those people taken to local hospitals were believed to have travelled from West Africa.

Boston health officials said the five people were cleared of Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and meningococcal infection following discussions with nearby hospitals.

"The patients who arrived ... at Logan International Airport do not meet the criteria for any infections of public health concern," Boston Public Health Commission's infectious disease unit said in a statement.

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Emirates flight EK237 arrived at Boston's Logan Airport at 2.30pm local time after a 14-hour flight from the United Arab Emirates.

It sat on the tarmac before a team of officials dressed in hazmat suits boarded the plane and evacuated the five passengers.

On Sunday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first Ebola case contracted on American soil, a Texas healthcare worker being treated in Dallas.

Five US airports are screening for Ebola, but Logan Airport is not one of them. And there are no direct flights between the northeastern US city of Boston and West Africa.


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