Another Ebola health worker was evacuated back to his home country as part of a set of precautionary measures for possible infection. Quite unusually, the man who is a nurse from Switzerland could have possibly contracted the virus after a young patient bit him while he was on a medical mission with an international organization in Sierra Leone.
Earlier, the Health Ministry of Switzerland had already said that it is unlikely that the man could have been infected since he was wearing protective gear at the time of the incident. However, as a precaution, he was still flown back to his native Switzerland with the help of a private transport company, and has now been placed under careful observation at the University Hospital of Geneva. The patient will be kept in isolation and under surveillance over the course of three weeks, the stipulated incubation period of the Ebola virus. During this time, if the patient has been infected, he will be expected to show various signs and symptoms of the disease.
The Ebola virus is believed to be able to affect humans initially when they come in contact with an animal that carries the virus. The virus does not normally occur in humans and further studies are needed to be able to positively identify its organic reservoir hosts, but as soon as a human is infected, this highly contagious disease can be spread if another person is exposed to an infected person's bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, vomit, feces, urine, or semen, especially when these come in contact with broken skin or mucous membranes. Another way that a person could become infected is through the use of contaminated objects like syringes or needles that have been previously used on a patient with Ebola. Contrary to other belief, the virus is not airborne and cannot be transmitted through food or water either. However, in Africa, the Ebola virus is known to spread through wild animals that they hunt for food.