An American healthcare worker who contracted Ebola while fighting the outbreak in Sierra Leone is now in a critical condition, doctors at the National Institutes of Health said on Monday.
Ebola: 10 clinicians to be evacuated to US after helping sick colleague
The agency changed the patient’s status from “serious” to “critical” on Monday. The healthcare worker, who has not been identified, returned to the US on Friday and is receiving treatment at an NIH hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington DC.
The patient was volunteering at an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone as a clinician working with the Boston-based non-profit, Partners in Health. According to its website, the group began treating Ebola patients in Liberia and Sierra Leone in September.
The patient tested positive for the disease on 11 March and was flown by a charter plane to the US days later. Since the patient’s Ebola diagnosis, 10 colleagues have been evacuated to the US after health officials identified them as possibly having been exposed to the disease. None have displayed symptoms of Ebola and are therefore not contagious.
Partners in Health said in a statement on Saturday that the medical workers would travel on non-commercial aircraft and will remain in isolation near designated US Ebola treatment facilities. The volunteer clinicians have agreed to be monitored, and will voluntarily self-isolate during the remainder of their 21-day incubation periods, in accordance with CDC guidelines, the group said.
The healthcare worker’s name, age and gender have not been disclosed for privacy reasons, though the hospital provides periodic updates on the patient’s condition.
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