An Atlanta hospital has admitted a U.S. healthcare worker who may have been exposed to Ebola in West Africa, the Emory University Hospital confirmed Thursday, Reuters reported.
The unidentified patient, who was brought in for possible treatment after being evacuated by air from West Africa, arrived for testing and observation early on Thursday, the hospital said adding that they will be monitoring the patient to check if he or she has been infected with the deadly virus.
Emory University Hospital, which has been named as one of the 35 U.S. hospitals designated to treat Ebola virus, has already been successful in treating four other Ebola patients in its Serious Communicable Diseases Unit, including the first two Americans who contracted Ebola while working in West Africa, the hospital said in an e-mail.
"Emory cannot share more details out of respect for patient privacy and in accordance with the patient's wishes," the hospital said. However, it did reveal that the patient was flown in by Phoenix Air, a medical charter company, from West Africa, according to the statement.
But the hospital declined to release information about the country from which the health worker might have contracted the disease.
In addition to the four patients treated at Emory, four others have been cured of the virus after being cared for at U.S. medical centers, according to Bloomberg. Two people have died after treatment in the U.S., including Martin Salia, a physician infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone and evacuated last month to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Additionally, a Texas man, Thomas Eric Duncan, died at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas after being diagnosed with Ebola, the first one to have been reported in the U.S.
Recently, the deadly virus has also been used as a threatening substance in a few incidents. Last month, plastic vials allegedly containing a sample of the deadly Ebola virus were sent to New Zealand's leading newspaper and parliament, immediately sparking a scare through the island nation, Sky News Australia reported.
Shipped to the New Zealand Herald newspaper's office as part of a package from a "jihadist group," the vial contained a small amount of liquid in a plastic bottle along with an attached letter that claimed it to be a sample of the rare West African virus.
In another instance, Spanish intelligence had intercepted online Islamic State messages urging jihadist supporters in the West to kill civilians by any means possible, including using Ebola as a chemical weapon and stabbing people with poisoned needles, a senior Spanish politician revealed.
Meanwhile, West Africa is suffering the worst Ebola outbreak ever recorded, with 6,070 deaths out of 17,145 cases as of Nov. 30, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization said Wednesday in a report.
