American Health Worker Diagnosed With Ebola in Sierra Leone Headed to NIH
The unnamed health worker will travel to the U.S. on a plane in isolation.
— -- An American health worker volunteering in an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with the deadly virus and will be headed to the United States for treatment, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The patient, who has not been identified, will be isolated and flown to the NIH Clinical Center Special Clinical Studies Unit in Maryland, which is one of four hospitals in the country with isolation units prepared for Ebola patients. This will be the NIH's second Ebola patient. The patient is scheduled to be admitted on Friday, officials said.
The Ebola outbreak is nearing its end in the neighboring West African country of Liberia, with what health officials are calling the final Ebola patient's discharge from an Ebola treatment unit last week. But the World Health Organization today announced that the virus had claimed more than 10,000 lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Dallas nurse Nina Pham, 26, the first person to catch Ebola on U.S. soil, was flown to the NIH facility in October and released Ebola-free.
