An American doctor exposed to Ebola in Sierra Leone will be admitted to a National Institutes of Health hospital in Maryland for observation, the agency said Saturday. While the unnamed physician will be enrolled in a clinical study in the coming days, treatment at the Bethesda center doesn’t mean the physician was infected with the deadly virus while volunteering in West Africa, officials added.
The patient will be kept in a “high-level isolation” unit staffed by infectious diseases and critical care specialists, and poses minimal risk to staff or the public, the NIH said. “It is important to remember that Ebola patients can be safely cared for at any hospital that follows CDC’s infection control recommendations and can isolate a patient in a private room,” the agency said in a statement.
Two American doctors and one American aid worker infected with Ebola in Liberia have received treatment from U.S. facilities and made full recoveries in recent weeks. The current Ebola outbreak has sickened more than 6,500 people and killed 3,000 in West Africa — an epidemic only expected to worsen, world health officials warn.
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