An American exposed to Ebola while working in Sierra Leone is under observation at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, one of four hospitals in the United States with the biocontainment units necessary to treat the disease.
The healthcare worker, who has not been identified, has not experienced any
Ebola-like symptoms, hospital officials told KETV.com.
"They will administer the test and within 24 hours they will have a result," Nebraska Medicine spokesman Taylor Wilson told the television station. "The crew is ready. We've learned from things in the past that you want to get people treatment as soon as possible, so everyone's being careful as possible, taking every precaution."
The healthcare worker arrived at Omaha's Eppley Airfield about 2 p.m. Sunday and was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center where the worker remains under observation.
"This patient will be under observation in the same room used for treatment of the first three patients and will be carefully monitored to see if Ebola disease develops," Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medicine, said in a press release.
The healthcare worker will be under observation for the recommended 21-day monitoring period.
"Even though the patient hasn't had a positive test for Ebola, all of our team members are taking the same precautions that were taken with the first three patients who
did have Ebola," Wilson told The Washington Post, referring to Dr. Richard Sacra, NBC cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, and Dr. Martin Salia.
Salia died at Nebraska Medical Center after less than two days of treatment, The Post noted.
Nearly 8,000 people died from Ebola in 2014, most of them in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leon,
according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only 15 Ebola deaths occurred outside of West Africa last year.
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