Doctor Contracts Ebola in Sierra Leone, to Be Flown to Nebraska for Treatment
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iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A surgeon from Sierra Leone and a permanent resident of the United States who contracted Ebola while working in West Africa will be flown to the U.S. to receive treatment for the deadly virus, according to a government official.
Dr. Martin Salia is expected to arrive in the United States on Saturday and will receive treatment at Nebraska Medical Center, the official told ABC News.
It is unclear how he contracted Ebola, but the official said he was in Sierra Leone at the time.
A hospital spokesman would only say that he would soon be evaluated for possible treatment. He would not give any other details.
In a statement, Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said they were working “in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” and were in touch with the family of a U.S. legal permanent resident working in Sierra Leone who has contracted Ebola.
“His wife, who resides in Maryland, has asked the State Department to investigate whether he is well enough to be transported back to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for treatment,” the statement added.
This comes two days after Dr. Craig Spencer, who contracted Ebola treating patients in West Africa, was discharged from a New York City hospital Ebola-free.
Spencer, 33, who treated Ebola patients in Guinea for Doctors Without Borders, spent 20 days in isolation at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan after testing positive for Ebola there on Oct. 23.
Spencer was the fourth person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States and the ninth Ebola patient to be treated in this country. Only Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who was diagnosed in Dallas, Texas, in late September, has died of the virus in the United States.
More than 5,000 people have died in the Ebola outbreak that is ravaging parts of West Africa, the World Health Organization reported on Wednesday.
This is the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded — the vast majority in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
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