Child Being Monitored For Ebola At Chicago Hospital

A child is reportedly being monitored for Ebola symptoms at the University of Chicago Medical Center after returning from West Africa.

The child was sent to the hospital after being screened at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, where they had a high fever. The child had been on a flight traveling from London to O'Hare, and airport officials learned after questioning that the child had in fact recently spent time in Sierra Leone in West Africa.

According to the strict airport protocols in the U.S., any passenger traveling from West Africa to the U.S. and exhibiting a fever or other signs of the deadly Ebola virus must be tested and monitored for the disease.

"We have very strict protocol, so if you have a travel history, plus a symptom and some concern, you're going to be treated as a potential suspect for Ebola," Lamar Hasbrouck, a spokesperson for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told ABC News.

"We don't want anything to slip through the cracks," Hasbrouck said. "We'd rather be more cautious then less until we get those lab tests back. Oftentimes, we're finding another diagnosis. We've had four patients so far that have required further evaluation. Each and every one of those tested negative for Ebola."

Previously, a Dallas nurse who tested positive for Ebola had taken a domestic flight from Dallas to Cleveland one day before she started showing symptoms of the disease. Her travel forced the commercial airliner to be completely quarantined and all people traveling on the plane to be monitored for symptoms of the illness.