Officials plan for possible Ebola outbreak in US - Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

(MyFoxBoston.com) -- Fear continues to grow nationwide as officials prepare for a possible Ebola outbreak.

Late Friday afternoon, officials held a news conference at the White House seeking to reassure the public that there's little chance of an outbreak in this country. They also took the opportunity to announce that up to 4,000 troops could be deployed to West Africa soon to begin long-awaited aid to Liberia, including working on the construction of treatment centers.

A White House advisor also announced that the US is not considering a travel ban to prevent people in West African countries from coming here.

In Dallas, CDC officials say they've now tracked down all 100 people said to have had some kind of direct or indirect contact with Thomas Duncan, the infected man now in isolation in a Dallas hospital.

Four of Duncan's family members remain under quarantine at their Dallas apartment. On Friday, helicopters captured a hazmat team at the apartment complex, scrubbing the place down and removing items.

And back in D.C., a patient exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms is being treated at Howard University Hospital. That patient had recently visited Nigeria. The hospital says they're treating him or her out of an abundance of caution and consider that person to be a "low-risk exposure."

And just miles away, in the DC suburb of Rockville, Maryland, the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital confirmed that it is evaluating a patient who had symptoms and a travel history that would be consistent with an Ebola case. However, the hospital says, lab results came back positive for a different illness, and said they do not have a confirmed diagnosis of Ebola, but would not go as far to say that the Ebola test came back negative, either.

Other potential patients in several other states have been tested, but have come back negative for Ebola.