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Stop Ebola Campaign
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An
American health care worker who contracted Ebola while volunteering in a Sierra
Leone treatment unit has been downgraded to critical condition at the National
Institutes of Health, doctors said on Monday.
The
agency said in a statement that the patient's status was changed from serious
condition. He is being treated at the National Institutes of Health's hospital
near Washington.
"We
are intensively treating the patient," said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH. "He's in
our special clinical studies unit and, hopefully, that will be able to turn
this around and the patient will recover, but it's too early to say."
AP report continues:
The
patient was flown in isolation from Sierra Leone on a chartered plane last week
and arrived early on Friday morning. His name and age have not been released.
Screening
of patients
The
man is a clinician working with Partners in Health, a Boston-based non-profit
organisation. The group has been treating patients in Liberia and Sierra Leone
since November.
The
latest NIH patient is the 11th person with Ebola to be treated in the US. Two
patients in the US have died: a man treated in Dallas after contracting the
virus in Africa and a doctor evacuated from Africa to Nebraska when he was
already critically ill.
The
man in Dallas had contracted the virus in his native Liberia.
He
transmitted the disease to two nurses, resulting in widespread concern in the
US, with questions raised about emergency department screening of patients,
monitoring of ill travellers from Africa and even disputes over the disposal of
potentially infectious waste from hospitals.
The
World Health Organisation has estimated the virus has killed more than 10 000
people, mostly in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Isolation
unit
The
current outbreak is the largest ever for the disease. While deaths have slowed
dramatically in recent months, the virus appears stubbornly entrenched in parts
of Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Besides
the man at NIH, there are 12 other Partners in Health workers being brought to
the United States for monitoring.
One
of those being monitored has developed symptoms of Ebola and was being moved to
an isolation unit, hospital officials said in a news release on Monday.
Nebraska Medical Centre spokesperson Taylor Wilson said the individual
developed symptoms on Sunday evening and was hospitalised as a precaution.
Wilson declined to describe the symptoms, but said they had resolved on Monday.
None
of those being monitored has tested positive for Ebola.
The
National Institutes of Health said it has no other pending admissions of
additional patients with the Ebola virus or who have been exposed to Ebola.
CDC workers in Sierra Leone
are involved in investigating the illness of the first patient, including
looking for other people the person was in contact with. It's possible other
people will be transported to the United States for monitoring, said the
spokesperson, Tom Skinner.
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