Australian nurse cleared of Ebola

Sydney: The Australian nurse who was rushed to hospital after suffering Ebola-like symptoms has tested negative, a health official confirmed Friday.

Sue Ellen Kovack, 57, was tested for the deadly virus Thursday after she spent time in Sierra Leone, where she was volunteering as a nurse at a Red Cross Ebola treatment hospital, Xinhua reported.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the tests results were negative.

The hospitalisation follows three previous cases in Australia, one involving a Perth man, another a baby who had returned to Melbourne from west Africa, and a man who returned to Queensland from the Democratic Republic of Congo. All three patients have been cleared of the deadly virus.

Ebola, which was discovered in 1976, has killed 3,431 people and infected 7,470 people since the outbreak in West Africa in March, according to the World Health Organization's latest report.