Hospitals in 27 states have alerted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of 68 possible Ebola patients in the last three weeks, according to an ABC News report.
Of the 68 total cases, reported to the CDC out of "an abundance of caution," 58 were deemed false alarms without being tested after clinicians spoke with CDC officials about the patients' exposures and symptoms, according to the report. The remaining 10 cases were sent to the CDC for testing. Seven of those samples tested negative for Ebola, with the remaining three still pending.
One potential Ebola patient in the U.S. is at Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento (Calif.) Medical Center. The hospital announced an admitted patient may have been exposed to the virus and that the CDC is testing the patient's blood.
Another is at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, where a patient is in isolation and awaiting Ebola test results from the CDC after returning from the West African nation of Sierra Leone with Ebola symptoms, according to ABC News.
Since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa started in March, more than 1,200 people have died from the infectious virus as of Tuesday, according to the CDC. So far, there have been only two confirmed cases of Ebola patients in the U.S., both of whom received treatment Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after being airlifted from Liberia.