UPDATE: American With Ebola Virus Arrives at NIH

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UPDATED at 11:45 a.m.

An American health-care worker infected with Ebola was flown from Africa to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda to be treated in its special isolation unit, the agency said.

NBCWashington reports the health-care worker had been volunteering at an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone. The patient was flown to the United States on a chartered plane and is expected to arrive at the NIH on Friday.

The healthcare worker arrived safely at the NIH Clinical Center for care and treatment at 4:44 a.m. Friday, the agency said in a statement. The patient’s condition is still being evaluated. No additional details about the patient are being shared at this time.

The patient is being treated at the NIH Clinical Center’s Special Clinical Studies Unit, which offers high-level isolation capabilities and is staffed by specialists in infectious diseases and critical care, the NIH said. The unit’s staff is trained in strict infection control practices optimized to prevent spread of potentially transmissible agents such as Ebola.

The patient is the second to be treated for Ebola at NIH. Last fall, Texas nurse Nina Pham was treated there after contracting the disease while caring for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Duncan died Oct. 8 from the infectious disease.

Two other medical professionals who were exposed to the highly infectious disease were also treated at NIH in the fall; neither developed Ebola.

The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda is one of four facilities in the United States with special isolation facilities where Ebola patients can more easily be treated. Other specialized facilities are Emory University Hospital in Atlanta; Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha; and St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, MT.

SEE ALSO:

• Texas Nurse with Ebola Flying to NIH in Bethesda for Treatment
• Doctor Exposed to Ebola Virus Arrives in Bethesda
• Experimental Ebola Vaccine Shows Promise: Researchers