Dive Brief:
- Ten healthcare workers with the Boston-based charity Partners in Health are returning to the US after being exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone.
- The workers were exposed while treating another colleague who was showing signs of illness from the virus.
- All 10 workers have agreed to remain isolated during the 21-day Ebola incubation period.
Dive Insight:
The healthcare worker who is already ill with the Ebola virus is currently being treated in the National Institutes of Health's high-containment facility in Bethesda, MD. Four of the ten workers who were exposed to the virus are already being monitored at Nebraska Medical Center. Once evacuated, the other six will be monitored in hospitals in Atlanta and Bethesda that have experience with treating Ebola, in case they should become ill. Partners in Health is continuing its work in Sierra Leone, but says it is working with the CDC and other agencies to assess its safety and clinical protocols.
Although these particular healthcare workers were evacuated under controlled circumstances, hospitals need to make sure they are doing what they can to prepare for unanticipated Ebola cases.