U.S. Patient With Ebola|in Critical Condition

BETHESDA, Md. (CN) - A U.S. health care worker who contracted the Ebola virus is in critical condition, a government-run hospital said Monday.

The National Institutes of Health had no other information on the as-yet unidentified patient, who was admitted Friday to the NIH Clinical Center Special Clinical Studies Unit.

NIH had said last week that the individual tested positive for Ebola after volunteering in an Ebola-treatment unit in Sierra Leone.

The individual was transported back to the United States in isolation via a chartered aircraft to NIH's high-level containment facility.

NIH changed that patient's status from serious to critical condition, according to the Monday release.

Though the agency does not have any other pending admissions of patients with or exposed to the Ebola virus, it successfully treated a different patient with Ebola at the same center months earlier.

Two other individuals who had experienced high-risk exposures to the Ebola virus while working on the Ebola response in West Africa were also previously admitted to the NIH Clinical Center. Neither tested positiive for the infection.

Read the Top 8

Sign up for the Top 8, a roundup of the day's top stories delivered directly to your inbox Monday through Friday.

Email *

Submit