A group of 10 American health care workers who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone are being flown home for monitoring, officials said.
The move comes after a US clinician with the charity Partners in Health tested positive for the deadly virus and was transferred to a hospital near Washington for treatment.
The 10 volunteers may have come into contact with the Ebola patient, and are being flown via non-commercial aircraft, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
“CDC can confirm that 10 American health care workers who’ve been volunteering in Sierra Leone are returning to the US to undergo monitoring according to CDC recommendations,” spokeswoman Kathy Harben told AFP.
The CDC said it was working with the State Department to facilitate their safe return.
None of the workers have currently been identified as having the disease, the CDC noted.
The workers will remain near the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health or Emory University Hospital, all of which are equipped to treat Ebola patients, it added.
“Individuals will follow CDC’s recommended monitoring and movement guidelines, including direct active monitoring and, as appropriate, voluntary self isolation during the 21-day incubation period,” the agency said.
Any of the workers showing Ebola symptoms will be taken to a specialized treatment center for evaluation and care.
The patient being treated at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center near the US capital was listed in serious condition on Friday.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization announced that the death toll from the world’s largest Ebola outbreak had topped 10,000.
Most of the deaths in the outbreak, which began in late 2013, have been in the West African nations of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. [AFP]
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