U.S. to Receive Nurse Exposed to Ebola in Sierra Leone

WASHINGTON – A U.S. nurse exposed to Ebola while working as a volunteer treating people sick with the virus in Sierra Leone will be admitted to the National Institute of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the institution announced Thursday.

The nurse, whose identity has not been made public, will be placed under observation in a special clinical studies unit, where healthcare professionals will follow the established protocols for dealing with Ebola patients.

“The special clinical studies unit is specifically designed to provide high-level isolation capabilities and is staffed by infectious diseases and critical care specialists,” the NIH said in a statement.

“The unit staff is trained in strict infection control practices optimized to prevent spread of potentially transmissible agents such as Ebola. In addition, access to the unit will be strictly controlled,” the institution added.

Being exposed to the Ebola virus does not necessarily mean that someone has contracted it, given that it is transmitted only by direct contact with blood or body fluids from infected people or animals.

The World Health Organization, at latest count, estimates that 17,908 people have become infected with Ebola to date, of whom 6,373 have died.

More than a dozen people with Ebola have been treated in the United States so far and two of them have died.

The fatalities include surgeon Martin Salia, who contracted the disease in his native Sierra Leone, and Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who came to Dallas, Texas, in September when he was already unknowingly infected and died the following month in a local hospital.