Australian journalist Michael Usher is in quarantine following an Ebola scare.

Australian journalist Michael Usher is in quarantine after potentially being exposed to Ebola during a recent trip to Africa.

The 60 Minutes reporter had spent a week in Sierra Leone reporting on the Ebola crisis with four colleagues.

He touched down in Sydney airport yesterday, where he was detained for almost five hours.

A Perth woman has tested negative to carrying the deadly Ebola virus.

He will now stay in voluntary quarantine for the next week – meaning he will not even see his family during that time.

Passengers must now fill in a form before arriving in Australia which details their whereabouts in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly disease.

After filling in the form, Usher and colleagues were assessed by Customs and Quarantine officers and representatives from the NSW Department of Health.

Australian nurse treating Ebola patients rushed to hospital.

Usher told The Daily Telegraph:

“I am on a complete self-imposed ban from my own family for the next seven days. Every precaution has been taken. We are fine, there is nothing wrong with us but you just don’t know and it would be grossly unfair of us to take any risks…I think it is pretty encouraging that they were extremely thorough and meticulous in what they went through and they took our temperature two or three times we were there just to check. They were looking for fever, they were looking for vomiting, signs of Ebola. I’ve seen the dead and dying in the past week or so in very closely range to report the story but none in direct contact.”

The team threw away the clothing they wore in Ebola-stricken areas before boarding their flight.

They must now check their temperatures twice a day for three weeks and text their results to Health Department officials.

Found yourself wondering what the symptoms of Ebola are? Read this.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.

It has a three week incubation period, and early symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, cough, stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

So far it is believed more than 10,000 people have died from the outbreak.