Americans Evacuated After Possible Ebola Contact
By SHERI FINK
New York Times
MARCH 14, 2015
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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 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.
New York Times
MARCH 14, 2015
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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 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.
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