A patient has been isolated at a Brisbane hospital and is being tested for the Ebola virus after arriving from West Africa and developing a fever.

The 18-year-old woman arrived 11 days ago, Queensland's chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said, and had until yesterday been in home quarantine.

However, she has now been transferred to an isolation unit at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

A first test result for the virus is expected early today, while a second test will be carried out in three days' time.

The woman, whom Dr Young did not name, is not a healthcare worker. She is from West Africa and was planning to stay in Australia indefinitely.

"She didn't have any known contact with anyone that was sick with Ebola virus disease," Dr Young told reporters on Sunday evening.

"But she did come from an area that had a reasonably large number of cases, so that's why it was thought appropriate that she go into home quarantine when she arrived [in Australia]."

Dr Young said the woman's fever had "resolved" and she was "otherwise well".

The woman was part of a family of nine that arrived, Dr Young said, though she is the only one in isolation.

"The others remain in home quarantine [in] the house they've been in since they've first arrived," she said.

Woman poses 'no risk to the community'

Health staff, who have been making a daily phone call to the home, organised an ambulance to transport the woman to hospital after she informed them she had suffered a fever on Saturday night.

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"The other people in the house are quite safe," Dr Young said.

"They have a risk ... they're also in home quarantine because of their risk from when they were in West Africa, but the risk from her is minimal.

"There is no risk to the community at all because she hasn't left the house or had any visitors in the time that she has been here in Brisbane."

Dr Young said health authorities were notified of the family's arrival plans and processed them at the airport and organised home quarantine.

The family flew out of Guinea.

Dr Young said there was "no risk at all for anyone on that plane" because the woman was not showing symptoms during the flight.

Ebola risk in Australia 'extraordinarily low'

Queensland Health is monitoring four families where members have recently been to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

"We have to remember here in Australia the risk of getting Ebola virus disease is extraordinarily low," Dr Young said.

"We have good systems to pick up people who are unwell at the border, and then we have systems to support people out in the community.

"You do need direct contact with the secretions of someone who is sick ... whether that be vomit, faeces, urine or blood, to be able to contract the disease. That's very unlikely."

The development comes on the back of fears the deadly Ebola virus - which has infected more than 10,000 people in West Africa - could spread to Australia.

Earlier this month, nurse Sue-Ellen Kovack was discharged from Cairns Hospital after twice testing negative for the virus when she returned home from caring for patients in Sierra Leone.

The Australian Medical Association yesterday warned Australia's response to the crisis has been chaotic, with president Professor Brian Owler saying the Government was keeping Australians in the dark about its plans and medical professionals wanted a coherent strategy to tackle the crisis in West Africa.

At least 4,922 people have died - mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - in the worst outbreak of the disease in history, according to the World Health Organisation.