An 18-year-old West African woman with a fever who arrived in Brisbane 11 days ago has been isolated at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
The woman has had no known contact with people who were infected with the virus, according to Queensland's chief health officer Jeannette Young.
She came down with a fever in Brisbane mid-way through a voluntary 21-day home quarantine system, requested by Queensland Health after being contacted three days before she flew to Australia.
The woman was not a health care worker and had come to Brisbane with her family after flying in from Conakry, the capital city in Guinea, Dr Young said.
"She didn't have any known contact with anyone who was sick with Ebola virus disease," Dr Young said.
"But she did come from an area that had a reasonably large number of cases," she said.
"So that is why we thought it was appropriate that she go into home quarantine when she arrived here."
She has undergone initial testing for the Ebola virus and will have a second test for the presence of the virus in three days time.
Results from the first test will be known in the early hours of Monday, but the young woman will remain in isolation until the results of the second test are confirmed.
Dr Young said the woman was moving to Australia with her family as part of the federal government's humanitarian refugee program.
Nine people - six children and three adults, including the 18-year-old woman - are in the family's home quarantine.
"She is one of nine family members - in an extended family - and they all went into home quarantine when they arrived," Dr Young said.
The woman developed the fever on Saturday night and was transferred to the RBWH on Sunday by ambulance after a health officer made her regular, daily phone call to the family.
Queensland Health had been advised the family was travelling to Brisbane three days before they flew from Conakry.
"So we had processes in place to meet them at the airport and to organise for them to go into home quarantine at that time," Dr Young said.
Dr Young said the ambulance officers who assisted the woman had worn full protective clothing.
She said no-one else in the West African family was unwell.
"They're all perfectly well and no-one else in that family has a fever," Dr Young said.
She said the family had been in home isolation since arriving in Brisbane.
"There is no risk to the community at all because they haven't left the house .... in the time that they have been here," Dr Young said.
"I'm very confident that there is no risk to any member of the Queensland community."
She said the remaining family members were being closely monitored, however they were not expected to be at risk as Ebola is thought to be contagious only when symptoms are evident.
Dr Young said the women's fever had abated, however that did not mean she was in the clear and testing would take place over the next three days to determine whether she had the Ebola virus.
She said the family's actions in minimising the potential for spreading the virus had been "highly responsible", ensuring that the risk of the disease spreading was low even if the woman tested positive for the Ebola virus.
Dr Young said the "risk of getting the Ebola virus disease in Australia is extraordinarily low".
"You do need direct contact with the secretions of someone who is sick (to catch the Ebola virus)," she said.
Earlier this month an Australian nurse who had been treating Ebola patients was isolated with a fever in Cairns.
Australian Red Cross aid worker Sue Ellen Kovack was admitted to a Cairns hospital after coming down with a low-grade fever soon after returning from treating victims in Sierra Leone.
The 57-year-old twice tested negative for the virus before she was released from hospital on October 13 to complete the 21-day incubation period for Ebola at home.
There are now four families in Queensland in home quarantine, Dr Young said.
Dr Young said there was no need to alert people on the flight from Guinea used by the young lady when she flew into Brisbane if the tests come back positive for Ebola disease.
"No, she has been here in Brisbane for 11 days in home quarantine, so there is no risk at all for anyone on that plane."
"You need to have symptoms and be excreting the virus, in vomit, in faeces, in sweat or urine.
"And she doesn't have any symptoms, so she hasn't been excreting the virus.
"So the other people in the house are quite safe. They have a risk of course.
"But they are also in home quarantine because of their risk from when they were in West Africa.
"But the risk from her is minimal and there is no risk to the community because she has not left the house or had any visitors in the time that she had been here."
