An American health worker who experienced a high-risk exposure to the Ebola virus while in Sierra Leone is being sent to a Nebraska hospital for observation and possible treatment, hospital officials announced Saturday.
"This patient has been exposed to the virus but is not ill and is not contagious," said Phil Smith, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha. "However, we will be taking all appropriate precautions. This patient will be under observation in the same room used for treatment of the first three patients and will be carefully monitored to see if Ebola disease develops."
The patient is scheduled to arrive Sunday at 3 p.m. ET. Three Ebola patients in total have been treated at Nebraska Medicine: Dr. Richard Sacra, who was treated and released in December; NBC News freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who was released in October; and Dr. Martin Salia, who arrived at the hospital extremely ill and died from the virus after less than two days of treatment.
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