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American possibly exposed to Ebola is monitored at Nebraska hospital
An American who was possibly exposed to the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, was transported to a Nebraska hospital for monitoring, the facility said.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center said the person was “providing medical assistance” in the DRC, which is in the midst of a large Ebola outbreak.
The person, who was transported via private plane and automobile, has not shown any symptoms of infection, the hospital said. The person will be monitored for up to 2 weeks.
"This person may have been exposed to the virus but is not ill and is not contagious," Ted Cieslak MD, MPH, an infectious diseases specialist with Nebraska Medicine and associate professor of epidemiology in the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) College of Public Health, said in a statement. "Should any symptoms develop, the Nebraska Medicine/UNMC team is among the most qualified in the world to deal with them."
Nebraska Medical Center treated three patients infected with Ebola and monitored several others during the West African Ebola epidemic, during which some U.S. hospitals built dedicated Ebola treatment units. The hospital has one of the country’s few dedicated biocontainment units, which will be activated if the patient currently being monitored develops any symptoms of Ebola, it said.
The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the DRC — the second-largest ever after the West African epidemic — included 598 confirmed or probable cases and 363 confirmed or probable deaths as of Monday, according to the country’s ministry of health.
Reference:
UNMC. American to be monitored at Medical Center after possible Ebola exposure. https://www.unmc.edu/news.cfm?match=23124. Accessed December 31, 2018.