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Man Who Traveled from Mali Tests Negative for Ebola, Officials Say

By  Murray Weiss Jeff Mays and Radhika Marya | November 20, 2014 3:12pm | Updated on November 20, 2014 6:47pm

 City health officials say they are testing a man who came to the United States from Mali for the deadly Ebola virus on Nov. 20, 2014. The person was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
City health officials say they are testing a man who came to the United States from Mali for the deadly Ebola virus on Nov. 20, 2014. The person was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
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CITY HALL— A Brooklyn man who recently returned from Africa has tested negative for the deadly Ebola virus.

The man was taken to Bellevue Hospital Thursday after exhibiting symptoms of the disease following the trip to Mali, officials said. Though the test result was negative, officials said the man would remain in isolation.

"Because in early Ebola Virus Disease initial tests may be negative, the patient will have further Ebola tests in the coming days to confirm today's negative result," read a joint statement from the city's Department of Health and the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which was released Thursday evening.

Several days ago the man went to a hospital in Brooklyn, but returned home, sources said. His flu-like symptoms continued, though, so he reached out to city officials.

He was then taken by ambulance to Bellevue.

City health officials called Mali — which is located in West Africa along with Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three other countries with Ebola outbreaks — "a country with limited Ebola transmission."

However, Doctors Without Borders announced Thursday that they are beefing up their efforts to fight the spread of Ebola in Mali after a person was diagnosed with the disease in the capital of Bamako on Nov. 11.

Mali has had six reported Ebola deaths. Four have been confirmed and two are suspected, the international aid organization said.

New York City has had only one diagnosed Ebola case, that of Dr. Craig Spencer, who contracted the disease while working with patients with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea.

Spencer was declared Ebola-free and released from the hospital last week.