Pentagon Ebola Alert Woman In Suspected Hoax

The heightened state of alert in the US over ebola was underscored on Friday when an apparently unwell woman, falsely claiming to have travelled to Liberia, triggered a scare at the Pentagon.

Hazmat-suited crews from Arlington, Virginia, descended on the scene as the woman was taken to hospital as a possible ebola case.

She was apparently sick after getting off a shuttle bus that was taking guests to a high-level Marine Corps ceremony.

The Department of Defense shut down a building entrance and car park to impose infectious disease protocols.

But federal sources later said she had admitted making up the story about travelling to West Africa, and there were doubts over her mental state.

The Obama administration has been scrambling to contain ebola since two Dallas nurses caught it after treating the first patient diagnosed with the virus in the US.

The White House on Friday picked Ron Klain, a lawyer and former vice-presidential chief of staff, to be its ebola czar.

The virus has now killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa.

A US cruise ship could not get permission to dock in Cozumel, Mexico, on Friday because it has a passenger under quarantine in another ebola scare.

A day earlier, Belize refused to allow US officials to evacuate the woman - who is isolated in a cabin with her husband - from the Carnival Magic via a coastal airport.

The Obama administration said the unidentified lab supervisor had handled specimens 19 days ago from a Liberian man who died of the disease in Dallas.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker did not have direct contact with Thomas Eric Duncan and was showing no symptoms of ebola, said the State Department.

Carnival Cruise Lines, which operates the vessel, said it was due to return to its home port of Galveston, Texas, on Sunday morning as originally scheduled.

The woman joined the cruise from Galveston last Sunday, before federal health officials updated requirements for active monitoring of anyone exposed to the virus.

She has been self-monitoring with daily temperature checks since 6 October, before she boarded the vessel.

But she has not reported a fever or illness, said the State Department.

US health officials meanwhile expanded their search for people who may have been exposed to Amber Vinson - one of the nurses who caught ebola after treating the Liberian man.

The Centers for Disease Control is now looking for passengers on a flight the 29-year-old made to Cleveland, Ohio, in addition to those on her Monday return trip to Texas.

The other nurse, Nina Pham, 26, was in a fair and stable condition at a federal facility in Maryland, US health officials said on Friday.