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Americans Evacuated After Possible Ebola Contact Americans Evacuated After Possible Ebola Contact
(about 3 hours later)
Four American aid workers, the first of at least 10 who may have come into contact with the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone, were evacuated on Saturday, according to an American official in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown. They will be the most Americans who have returned home over fears of exposure to the virus since an outbreak in three West African countries was declared last year. The first of a group of 10 American aid workers who may have come into contact with the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone were evacuated on Saturday, an American government official said. They will be the largest group of Americans to have returned home over fears of exposure to the virus since an outbreak in three West African countries was declared last year.
Another American aid worker, who was showing signs of illness, arrived in the United States on Friday evening, hours after a colleague with Ebola was flown from Sierra Leone to the clinical center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. That patient, a clinician who was not identified, tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, and investigators feared that he had exposed others to it. The workers served at an Ebola treatment unit run by the American charity Partners in Health in the Port Loko District in northern Sierra Leone. The 10 worked with the American medical aid group Partners in Health and were determined to have varying degrees of risk but no symptoms, said Sheila Davis, who leads Ebola response efforts for the charity. A medical worker for the charity was confirmed to have Ebola last week and returned to the United States Friday morning.
The American who arrived Friday evening had developed symptoms last week, but tested negative twice, said several officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity. She is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which has a specialized unit for Ebola patients. Another American aid worker with the group, who was showing signs of illness, arrived in the United States on Friday evening. She became sick last week, but tested negative for Ebola twice, said several officials unaffiliated with the charity, speaking on the condition of anonymity. She was sent to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which has a specialized unit for Ebola patients. The hospital had no information to provide on the patient, an Emory spokeswoman said Saturday.
Because the 10 other aid workers are not showing symptoms, they will not be hospitalized, but will instead remain in isolation and be subject to monitoring. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Saturday that the Americans would be taken on three flights to be close to three hospitals capable of treating Ebola patients: the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health center in Bethesda or Emory University Hospital. Officials said the evacuation might expand if necessary. The illness has killed an estimated 10,000 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the three countries most affected, but only a small number of foreign aid workers have been infected, many of whom have received sophisticated critical care in Western countries and survived.
So far, none of the other 10 aid workers have developed symptoms, according to Partners in Health. An investigation is continuing, and more workers will be evacuated if necessary. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, described the infected clinician’s condition as serious on Friday evening. On Saturday, a spokeswoman for the National Institutes of Health said there had been no change to report. The American confirmed to have Ebola, a clinician who was not identified, tested positive for the virus on Tuesday and arrived Friday morning to the clinical center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. He had collapsed while volunteering at a hospital in the Port Loko district of northern Sierra Leone.
Although Americans in the past have been offered a variety of experimental treatments for Ebola, Dr. Fauci said the effect of such therapeutics was still unclear. “The only way you know that is if you do a controlled clinical trial,” he said. “We are learning a lot but we don’t have conclusions.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Saturday that the Americans who came into contact with him or might have had exposures similar to those that resulted in his infection would be taken into voluntary isolation close to three hospitals capable of treating Ebola patients: the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health center in Bethesda and Emory University Hospital.
One other Ebola patient, Nina Pham, was treated successfully at the N.I.H. clinical center after having been infected last fall while caring for a Liberian patient in Dallas. Dr. Craig Spencer, a Doctors Without Borders volunteer who developed Ebola after returning to New York from Liberia last October, also recovered. He was treated at Bellevue Hospital Center and was the last American known to have contracted the virus. Dr. Spencer’s essay on his experience of stigmatization was published last month in The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Peter George, director of the Sierra Leone hospital where the workers were volunteering, said by phone on Saturday that an investigation was focusing on the possibility that the clinician had been exposed to Ebola while removing protective clothing on his way out of the high-risk zone at an Ebola treatment unit near the hospital.
The American clinician with Ebola who returned Friday collapsed while volunteering at a government hospital in the Port Loko District. The hospital’s director, Dr. Peter George, said by phone on Saturday that an investigation was focusing on the possibility that he had been exposed to Ebola while removing protective clothing on his way out of the high-risk zone at the Ebola treatment unit near the hospital. A Sierra Leonean community health officer, who Dr. George said worked as a monitor at the same Ebola treatment unit, was determined to have Ebola on Friday. Dr. George said he himself had been asked not to treat patients because he had prescribed medicines to the health officer for what was initially thought to have been stomach pain from a pre-existing peptic ulcer.
A community health officer, who Dr. George said worked at the Ebola treatment unit as a safety monitor, was determined to have Ebola on Friday. Dr. George said he himself had been asked not to treat patients and to be monitored because he had treated the Sierra Leonean worker. He had prescribed medicines for what was initially thought to have been stomach pain from a pre-existing peptic ulcer. On Saturday, a spokeswoman for the National Institutes of Health said there was no change to report on the infected American’s condition, which had been described as serious.
Although Americans in the past have been offered a variety of experimental treatments for Ebola, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the effect of such therapeutics was still unclear. “The only way you know that is if you do a controlled clinical trial,” he said. “We are learning a lot, but we don’t have conclusions.”
One other Ebola patient, Nina Pham, was treated successfully at the N.I.H. clinical center after having been infected last fall while caring for a Liberian patient in Dallas. Dr. Craig Spencer, a Doctors Without Borders volunteer who developed Ebola after returning to New York from Guinea last October, also recovered. He was treated at Bellevue Hospital Center and was the last American known to have contracted the virus.