BOSTON (REUTERS) - A patient in Massachusetts who recently returned from Liberia and was displaying symptoms of Ebola was transferred from a medical clinic to a Boston hospital on Sunday, the hospital said.

The patient reported to the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates hospital in Braintree, Massachusetts, complaining of a headache and muscle aches, said Ben Kruskal, a physician and chief of infectious disease, in a statement.

The patient has not been confirmed to have the deadly virus.

"Out of an abundance of caution we immediately notified authorities and the patient was securely removed from the building and put into an ambulance now headed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre," Kruskal said.

Kruskal said the Braintree building was closed briefly but reopened. "We are working closely with the Department of Public Health who will determine next steps," he said.

Fire and ambulance services responded to the hospital and put an Ebola protocol in place, said William Cash of the Braintree Fire Department. He said the patient is a male.

The current Ebola outbreak, the worst on record of the disease, has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa.

The development in Massachusetts comes hours after the announcement that a Texas health worker contracted Ebola after treating a Liberian man who died of the disease at a Dallas hospital last week.