MONTREAL (AFP) - A Canadian hospital put a patient in isolation Friday after he arrived in the country from Nigeria with symptoms of fever and flu - possible signs he is infected with Ebola - local media said.

Nigeria is one of several countries in West Africa that has had confirmed cases of Ebola, in the world's largest ever outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever that has seen nearly 1,000 deaths and more than 1,700 people infected since the beginning of the year.

A doctor at the Brampton, Ontario hospital, near Toronto, said the patient had a fever and other symptoms similar to those seen in Ebola cases, the news channel CP24 said.

Authorities decided to place him in isolation as a precaution, though there has been no official diagnosis and there are multiple diseases that could have caused his symptoms, stressed Eileen de Villa, an official with the region's Public Health office, according to CTV news.

In addition to quarantining the patient, the hospital also enacted other strict precautionary measures, she said.

The worst affected countries so far have been Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, but Nigeria has also had nine confirmed cases of Ebola so far.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday declared a national emergency several hours after the World Health Organization called the epidemic a global health crisis.