Sue Ellen Kovack worked with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. Credit:Facebook "She's in good spirits," he said. "She's obviously aware of the significant media interest around this and she knows that she's just followed normal sensible protocol, but is feeling well." Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young said Ms Kovack had recently returned from a month in Sierra Leone, where she has been working in a hospital treating Ebola victims. Dr Young said Ms Kovack had been in home quarantine since she returned home to Cairns, in far north Queensland. on Tuesday.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young speaks to the media about the North Queensland Ebola scare. Credit:Cameron Atfield "She's been in home isolation, home quarantine, since then following the protocols we put in place, which were nationally agreed to," she said. Dr Young said Ms Kovack had phoned authorities on Thursday morning after she developed a "low-grade fever" of 37.6 degrees. Sue Ellen Kovack is being tested for Ebola at Cairns Hospital. Credit:Brian Cassey She was admitted to Cairns Hospital about 1pm and blood was taken, which was taken to Forensic and Scientific Services in Brisbane, for testing.

Test results could be known late Thursday evening or early Friday, Dr Young said. Nurse Sue Ellen Kovack has been taken to Cairns Hospital amid fears she has been infected with Ebola. Credit:Facebook Dr Young said Ms Kovack was "perfectly well" when she arrived back in Australia on the weekend and even if it she was diagnosed with Ebola, there was a "very, very low" risk that others were exposed. "There's no need for any community concern at all because this particular individual only recently got any sort of symptom and she's been in her own home, isolated there," she said. Cairns nurse Sue-Ellen Kovack at work in Sierra Leone. Credit:Facebook

Concerned residents where Ms Kovack is listed as a property owner said they were yet to hear from health authorities. One said they were told of the case by journalists. "It is a little too close to home," another resident told Fairfax Media. Sue Ellen Kovack in Sierra Leone. Credit:Facebook "It's a concern." Dr Young said there no risk to people who had travelled on the same plane as her, as she had not displayed any symptoms on the flight.

Brisbane's Dr Jenny Stedmon, who worked alongside Ms Kovack, says her colleague is likely to face an uncomfortable time in quarantine. Credit:Robert Shakespeare "I am treating it as if it was [Ebola] because I don't know how likely it is, but there's the potential there because she has been in Sierra Leone looking after people sick with Ebola," she said. "So there is the potential there and that's why we're treating this so seriously." Brisbane doctor Jenny Stedmon, who teamed up with Ms Kovack in Sierra Leone, said the first she had heard of the scare was through the media. "I knew Sue Ellen was back and I've been trying to talk to her for the past two days, but we've been communicating by text," she said.

"It's all a big surprise to me. We were supposed to talk this morning, but I didn't think too much of it because I was out of quarantine today." Dr Stedmon said she felt for her colleague, who faced an uncomfortable immediate future no matter what the tests showed. "Even if it's only just a little bit of fever from catching something on the plane, because it's a hell of a journey back and you are exposed to various other things, she's probably going to have to spend a very uncomfortable time in quarantine in a hospital instead of in her own home," she said. "I feel very sorry for her." Dr Stedmon said she worked closely with Ms Kovack at the Kenema Government Hospital, about 300 kilometres east of the Sierra Leone capital Freetown.

"She arrived in my last 10 days there and we were teamed up in the beginning, because you tend to work in pairs," she said. "We were teammates until it got near to when I was going home and they wanted me to work during the day, so I couldn't follow the rotations quite like she was doing. "She's a good nurse." Seven Australian Red Cross aid workers have recently been deployed to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Four of those workers remain in west Africa, and there are current plans to send more. The Australians are part of a team of 153 international aid workers supporting local efforts. Mr Walton said to date no one in that global contingent had tested positive to Ebola.

The Australian Red Cross workers generally work in Ebola affected areas for a few weeks at a time and are required to be in home isolation for 21 days upon their return. Mr Walton said if an Australian worker suspected while overseas that they had been exposed to the virus, they could be evacuated "to a range of places". A federal health department spokeswoman said Australia's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Baggoley had been in contact with Queensland Health over the potential Ebola case and was confident that they were fully able to handle it. "Queensland, like all state and territory health authorities, have provided specific guidance to their designated hospitals, paramedic and ambulance workforces, general practice, and state-based quarantine and medical staff in relation to how to isolate, test and treat a suspected Ebola case," the spokeswoman said. Loading