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East Bay Hospital Installs Ebola Virus Warning Signs

WALNUT CREEK (KPIX 5) -- As the Ebola outbreak continues in West Africa, a Bay Area hospital has installed warning signs directed at people who have risk factors for the disease.

The signs, which have red bold letters, have been installed at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek. They ask patients if they have been to West Africa in the past three weeks, had close contact with someone who traveled to West Africa or had close contact with bats, rodents or primates from that region.

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Patients who have those risk factors and a fever are asked to contact hospital staff immediately.

Hospital officials insisted the signs are just a warning.

"Purely precautionary," said Ben Drew of John Muir Health. "We know Ebola is very difficult to transmit between from human to human other than bodily fluids, so it's just a precaution at this point. We just want people to be aware so that we do take the best care of them."

The signs have been posted in emergency rooms and urgent care centers.

Earlier on Wednesday, a man in the Dallas area who recently traveled from Liberia died from the disease.

According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola outbreak has killed about 3,800 people in West Africa and has infected more than 8,000.

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