The Ebola outbreak may have slowed down, but that doesn't mean everyone can already breathe a sigh of relief. Another American health worker has to be flown to National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, after he or she has contracted the virus.
NIH has formally announced on Thursday, March 12, via a news report that they are expecting an American health worker who has recently contracted Ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone. This West African nation remains to be one of the badly hit along with Liberia and Guinea. She will arrive on board a chartered plane and inside an isolation unit.
NIH tries to limit the amount of information they share to the public, however. Other than the fact she will be coming from Sierra Leone, the institute did not reveal the gender, name, and the reason for the infection.
The institute is one of the appointed Ebola treatment centers in the United States. They have already treated Nina Pham, a Dallas, Texas, nurse, who acquired the virus after helping treat Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to be diagnosed of Ebola in the country. Duncan died a few days after he was admitted. NIH also screened two more people who had been suspected of Ebola. Later tests revealed negative.
As an Ebola treatment facility, NIH has special clinical studies unit where the American health worker will be treated. According to NIH's website, this unit is equipped with high-level isolation amenities and only specialists who have sufficient training in handling infectious diseases and critical care are allowed to come in and manage the patient. They have also set up strict controls to prevent the spread of infection and the facility is taking every measure to protect the health of its staff and the public.
Recently, the number of cases in Sierra Leone has gone up with people resisting treatment and following a proper burial for those who have died of the infection.