US Healthcare Worker With Ebola in Serious Condition at NIH

The NIH said the health-care worker was admitted at 4:44 a.m. Friday to its high-containment facility on its Bethesda, Md., campus, after being evacuated to the U.S. by chartered jet. Physicians have evaluated the patient with Ebola virus disease and have determined that the patient’s condition is serious. No additional details about the patient are being shared at this time.

The patient has been admitted to the NIH Clinical Center’s Special Clinical Studies Unit (SCSU) that is specifically designed to provide high-level isolation capabilities and is staffed by infectious diseases and critical care specialists.

The unit staff is trained in strict infection control practices optimized to prevent spread of potentially transmissible agents such as Ebola. NIH is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of our patients, NIH staff, and the public.

This will be the second patient with Ebola virus disease admitted to the NIH Clinical Center. An earlier patient was treated successfully and released free of disease. The NIH Clinical Center also previously admitted two individuals who experienced high-risk exposures to the Ebola virus while working on the Ebola response in West Africa, but who were ultimately found not to be infected.

This is the 11th person being treated for Ebola in the U.S. The last patient, Dr. Craig Spencer, recovered in December.

Also Friday, another American who may have been exposed to the Ebola infected healthcare worker was being flown by charter to the Atlanta area to be near Emory University Hospital. That person, who hasn’t been diagnosed with Ebola or shown any symptoms, will voluntarily self-isolate for the 21-day incubation period and be actively monitored, according to the CDC.

For more information about the NIH Clinical Centers SCSU, including photos and b-roll, please visit: http://www.cc.nih.gov/ebola.html. For more information about clinical protocols, visit: http://www.nih.gov/health/clinicaltrials/basics.htm.

About the NIH Clinical Center: The NIH Clinical Center is the clinical research hospital for the National Institutes of Health. Through clinical research, clinician-investigators translate laboratory discoveries into better treatments, therapies and interventions to improve the nation’s health. More information: http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov.

The world has recorded more than 24,000 Ebola cases so far, with nearly 10,000 reported deaths, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

The epidemic has drastically slowed in Liberia and the country hasn’t recorded a case in more than two weeks and only a handful of cases have been seen in the United States, Spain and Britain.

But nearly a year after the first Ebola case was reported, the epidemic is still out of control in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Both countries continue to record more than 50 new cases each week.