Pentagon And Arik Air Ebola Scares - How Long Does It Take To Rule Out Ebola?

The Pentagon has been declared Ebola free after a woman who fell sick in their parking lot has been ruled not to have Ebola.

Earlier today, the Pentagon police shut down one of the massive building's entrances and a portion of the South Parking lot after a woman who had fallen sick told emergency personnel that she recently visited West Africa, officials said.

According to ABC affiliate WJLA, what caused the woman to become sick was not disclosed in the joint statement issued by the county health departments for Arlington and Fairfax.

Medical authorities simply said that although "the woman had displayed symptoms consistent with the virus" they were "confident that she does not have Ebola."

Before this news story, Dailymail reported an Ebola scare among Arik Air passengers flying from Lagos to New York yesterday. A 63-year-old man, a US citizen, had caused panic among the crew and passengers when he died in-flight, about an hour before the Arik Air plane landed at its destination.

The CDC, Port Authority and customs officials were called, and on arrival, their personnel boarded the plane in protective gear, forcing the 145 worried passengers to remain on board while they conducted tests on the body.

After a short evaluation, the dead man was declared Ebola free and the other passengers were then allowed to leave the plane.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering about the duration of the test conducted on both the woman at the Pentagon and the corpse on the Arik flight.

A lot of people have described it as “very brief”, and I tend to agree that the test to detect such a deadly disease should take longer. But what do I know, the health authorities know best, and I guess we should just allow them do their jobs.