--- title: A Swedish Hospital Is Treating a Possible Ebola Patient description: Uppsala University Hospital, in Sweden, is treating an individual with a suspected case of Ebola. They are in isolation. canonical: https://time.com/5493973/sweden-ebola-patient/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-04T16:21:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:24:53.499Z article:section: Health og:title: A Swedish Hospital Is Treating a Possible Ebola Patient og:description: Test results are expected Friday night og:url: https://time.com/5493973/sweden-ebola-patient/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf25ca4303d774e/698942a4929fad6cf9bf26f8/sweden-ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: SWEDEN-HEALTH-EBOLA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Swedish Hospital Is Treating a Possible Ebola Patient twitter:description: Test results are expected Friday night twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf25ca4303d774e/698942a4929fad6cf9bf26f8/sweden-ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Swedish Hospital Is Treating a Possible Ebola Patient  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jan 4, 2019 4:21 PM UTC  The hospital in Enköping, Sweden, is pictured on January 4, 2019, as it has received a case of suspected Ebola, according to health care officials. The hospital in Enköping, Sweden, is pictured on January 4, 2019, as it has received a case of suspected Ebola, according to health care officials.FREDRIK SANDBERG—AFP/Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jan 4, 2019 4:21 PM UTC A Swedish hospital is treating an individual who may have Ebola, health officials [announced Friday](https://www.regionuppsala.se/nyheter#/pressreleases/misstaenkt-fall-av-ebola-inom-region-uppsala-2820295). The individual, whose identity was not disclosed, first visited an emergency room in Enköping, about 50 miles outside Stockholm, prompting hospital authorities to shut down the emergency department, a release says. The patient has since been transferred to Uppsala University Hospital, about 30 miles away, and is in isolation in the hospital’s infection clinic. The individual is not confirmed to have Ebola, and other diagnoses are possible. Test results are expected back sometime Friday night, according to the announcement. The announcement did not specify whether the individual was potentially exposed to the deadly virus — which causes symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding — in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where [there is currently an outbreak](http://time.com/5426847/democratic-republic-congo-ebola-outbreak/). It also did not specify how he or she traveled to the hospital in Sweden; the U.S. has not issued any Swedish travel alerts related to the case at this time. TIME could not immediately reach hospital officials for further comment. Uppsala health officials said no additional details are available at this time. [An individual in the U.S.](http://time.com/5490412/ebola-doctor-nebraska-medical-center/) is also under medical observation for possible Ebola exposure. The individual, a health worker who was responding to the outbreak in the DRC, has not yet shown symptoms, but is in isolation at University of Nebraska Medical Center. While the Ebola virus is highly contagious via direct contact with infected individuals or their bodily fluids, it cannot be spread by asymptomatic individuals, food or insects, [according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention](https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html). The World Health Organization [has deemed](http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/277405/SITREP-EVD-DRC-20181227-eng.pdf?ua=1) global risk of Ebola low, even though risk of spread in the DRC and its surrounding region is very high. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5493973/sweden-ebola-patient/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5493973/sweden-ebola-patient/"},"headline":"A Swedish Hospital Is Treating a Possible Ebola Patient","datePublished":"2019-01-04T16:21:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:24:53.499Z","description":"Test results are expected Friday night","url":"https://time.com/5493973/sweden-ebola-patient/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf25ca4303d774e/698942a4929fad6cf9bf26f8/sweden-ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf25ca4303d774e/698942a4929fad6cf9bf26f8/sweden-ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SWEDEN-HEALTH-EBOLA","caption":"SWEDEN-HEALTH-EBOLA","creditText":"FREDRIK SANDBERG—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5493973/sweden-ebola-patient/","name":"A Swedish Hospital Is Treating a Possible Ebola Patient"}}]}] ```