A health clinic was put into lockdown overnight on Thursday after a potential case of Ebola was detected.
Colchester General Hospital's urgent treatment centre was temporarily closed to new patients early yesterday due to an "infection control issue" at the site, reports Essex Live.
While bosses have not yet confirmed what the infection that led to the closure was, concerns of a possible Ebola infection are understood to have been raised due to the patient's symptoms and recent travel history.
No infection has been confirmed.
The only country in the world dealing with an active Ebola outbreak at present is Uganda, which has seen 141 confirmed cases and 55 deaths in the last two months.
After being placed under what a source described to The Sun as a "lockdown", the centre was reopened by health bosses at 7am and returned to full operating status.
Dr Meera Chand, a Director of Clinical and Emerging Infection at the UK Health and Security Agency, said it was a routine measure to test a symptomatic person returning from at-risk nation, saying: “Individuals who have travelled recently and report illness are routinely assessed by NHS clinicians for a variety of infectious diseases.”
A spokesperson for East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Trust, who operate Colchester Hospital, meanwhile said: "Thank you to all our patients and staff for their support yesterday afternoon when we had to temporarily close one clinical area at Colchester Hospital, the urgent treatment centre, to new patients.
"This was because of an infection control issue. The centre is now fully open (opened at 7am this morning)."
The Ebola Virus Disease is a deadly virus primarily associated with outbreaks in West and Central Africa, believed to be caused by wild animals (specifically fruit bats) coming into contact with humans.
Outbreaks of Ebola have a high fatality rate and there is no known vaccine or treatment.
