Kansas University Hospital announced Tuesday that a preliminary test of a patient with Ebola-like symptoms has come back negative.

Chief medical officer Lee Norman said at a news conference that the initial screening is a positive step but that the definitive answer will come from a test being conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Those results are expected Wednesday or Thursday.

The patient, a Kansas City, Kan., man in his 40s who worked as a medical officer on a commercial vessel off the west coast of Africa, came to the hospital Monday complaining of a high fever and other symptoms that resembled Ebola. He remains in an isolation unit at the hospital, though Norman said his condition is improving and that he probably has a different, less severe tropical illness.

“It’s highly unlikely that he does (have Ebola),” Norman said, “but we can’t say that with 100 percent certainty.”

Either way, Norman predicted that the Kansas City area would eventually see a case of Ebola. “With the amount of travel back and forth … it’s just the mathematical, statistical probability,” he said.

An Ebola outbreak in West Africa over the past several months has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people out of the roughly 9,000 who have been infected, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday. So far, one person has died from Ebola in the U.S., a Liberian man who traveled to Texas last month. A nurse who was caring for that man recently became the first person to contract Ebola on American soil. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on Tuesday released a statement saying the nurse is doing well and expressing optimism about her recovery.

In Lawrence, several agencies met Monday to coordinate what the local response would be to an Ebola case. They included the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, Douglas County Emergency Management, KU Watkins Memorial Health Center and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center.

Meanwhile, Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday the federal government is not doing a good-enough job protecting the country against the Ebola virus, requiring the state to step up to protect Kansans.

Brownback had no specifics about what more the federal government should do. Nor did he offer details about what Kansas is doing, other than to say that health officials meeting over the issue. Brownback says the state plans to make statements and issue advisories this week.

Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer says Kansas has a hazards plan, but offered no details on how it would deal with Ebola.

Brownback says the federal government’s response is too casual and is not as intense as needed at the U.S. border or in west African countries where Ebola is originating.