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Child being observed for Ebola symptoms after arriving at O'Hare

Doctors are monitoring a child for Ebola virus symptoms after the youngster arrived at O'Hare International Airport with a fever.

The child, who is in stable condition, has no other symptoms of the virus and was admitted to University of Chicago Medical Center Friday morning "to rule out Ebola," officials said.

The child's fever was detected during screening at O'Hare. Authorities did not say where the child was traveling from.

UCMC, Rush, Lurie and Northwest Memorial hospitals and the Chicago Department of Public Health are part of the Chicago Ebola Resource Network, a coalition formed to respond to possible cases of Ebola in the area.

The Centers for Disease Control has instituted screening of passengers arriving from Ebola hot spots - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - at O'Hare, JFK, Washington-Dulles, Newark and Atlanta international airports.

There are no direct flights from west Africa into O'Hare, the Chicago Department of Aviation said.

Although there's no "typical" routing for trips from the affected countries to Chicago, recent flights from Sierra Leone stopped in Brussels, Belgium and Frankfurt, Germany, according to Travelocity.

The Ebola virus is not an airborne one, officials said. Instead, the virus is spread by direct contact with blood or other body fluids from an infected person.

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