An American healthcare worker who tested positive for Ebola in Sierra Leone is being flown by charter plane to the National Institutes of Health for treatment, according to the agency.
The healthcare worker, who remains unidentified, will be kept in
isolation and treated at the National Institutes of Health’s
high-level containment clinic, which has previously treated Ebola
patients. The previous patient fully recovered from the disease.
A total of 10 people have been treated for Ebola in the US since
the outbreak began in early 2014.
The last person to be treated for Ebola in the United States
arrived for treatment in November.
American with Ebola to return to U.S. from Sierra Leone for
treatment http://t.co/i7RaDKwEFP
— Mashable (@mashable) March
12, 2015
More than 10,000 people
have died from Ebola, nearly all of whom lived in Sierra Leone,
Liberia or Guinea, according to the most recent data from the
World Health Organization (WHO). Fifteen other Ebola deaths also
occurred in Mali, Nigeria and the United States.
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A total of 24,000 people have been infected with Ebola, with more
than 11,000 cases reported in Sierra Leone alone, the most of any
country.
The latest Ebola outbreak was first detected in March 2014 in
Guinea. Officials initially thought it could be contained as it
had been in more than two dozen previous outbreaks in central and
eastern Africa. Health officials were slow to respond to the
emergency this time, with the World Health Organization only
declaring an emergency in August. The poor state of healthcare
systems in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone also contributed to
the outbreak.
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A global response effort with soldiers from the US, UK and other
nations helped slow the spread of the disease and the number of
deaths. The WHO and its partners have started testing two
experimental vaccines for those who have been exposed to the
virus but haven’t developed the disease.
“If we [have] a vaccine stockpile for the future, we might be
able to prevent (future outbreaks) from turning into what has
happened in West Africa,” Sebastian Funk, an infectious
diseases expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, told the Associated Press.