Emory Receives Potential Ebola Patient

An American who may have contracted the Ebola virus while assisting people in west Africa is being cared for at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, WSB-TV reports.

The healthcare worker, who is not being further identified, was flown in from west Africa and arrived in Atlanta at 5:45 a.m. Thursday, WSB-TV says. Doctors have placed the patient in the state of the art Serious Communicable Disease Unit, the special isolation ward which has successfully treated four Ebola patients.

Amber Vinson, a nurse who treated Ebola victim Thomas Duncan at a hospital in Dallas, was brought to Emory after she contracted the disease from Duncan. Vinson was treated and released in October after a course of treatment which destroyed the virus attacking her body.

American aid workers Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly were returned to the United States in early August via Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Cobb County after contracting the disease in west Africa and were released from the hospital after successful treatment in late August.

A worker with the World Health Organization who contracted the Ebola virus while in west Africa was successfully treated and was released from Emory University Hospital days before Vinson’s release.

The Serious Communicable Disease Unit is physically separated from other parts of the hospital, and only a handful of specially-trained medical personnel will ever interact with the new arrival during his or her stay at Emory.