HazMat Crews Respond to Possible Ebola Case Steps from the Pentagon

Health workers in HazMat suits swarmed a Pentagon parking lot Friday to treat a woman suffering from Ebola-like symptoms and who said she had recently traveled to western Africa, where the virus has killed more than 4,400 people.

The lot and surrounding area, in Arlington County and near a heavily traveled main commuter corridor in Washington, DC, was shut down to traffic in an abundance of caution, officials said.

Read latest updates to story on Arlington Patch.

Fears in the United States about the spread of the virus have increased dramatically since the death of a man in Texas and the infection of care workers. On Thursday alone, scares were reported in Connecticut and Virginia, and schools in Ohio and Texas have shut down in an abundance of caution.

See: CT Reacts to Ebola-Like Symptoms Found at Yale

Pentagon Police officers identified the woman in the Pentagon South Parking Lot, at about 9:10 a.m. Friday, around parking lanes 17-19, ill and vomiting, according to a news release from the county. The Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) was notified and responded immediately with both emergency medical aid and HazMat response team.

At 9:53 a.m, the patient was taken to the Virginia Hospital Center; however she did not exit the ambulance. ACFD then transported the patient to Fairfax Inova Hospital.

Arlington Public Health is directing the public health response to this incident. Arlington County has activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and a Joint Information Center (JIC) to manage the incident.

At the Pentagon
Out of an abundance of caution and to allow the investigation to proceed, pedestrian and vehicular traffic around the Pentagon South Parking lot’s lanes 7-23 will remain restricted until further notice. The Corridor 2 entrance to the Pentagon is also closed.

More information will be released when it becomes available.

Also See:

• Ebola Joke Gets Man Booted Off Plane From Philly
• Hartsfield-Jackson Employee on Leave Following West Africa Trips
• Possible Ebola Patient Being Tested In DC
• South Florida Ebola Scare Unfounded
• Passenger Removed From Plane At Newark Liberty Airport Is Ebola-Free
• Test Shows No Ebola in CT Patient Whose Condition Concerned Doctors
• Despite Unfounded Ebola Threat, Elm City Residents Remained Calm
• CT Reacts to Ebola-Like Symptoms Found at Yale
• Good Communication Facilitated Successful Transport of Yale Patient with Ebola-like Symptoms
• Man With Ebola-Like Symptoms Isolated at Harvard Vanguard Medical Center in Braintree
• Patient From Harvard Vanguard Medical Center in Braintree Unlikely to Have Ebola

PHOTO of Pentagon by David B. Gleason 2008 photo