An American healthcare worker who contracted Ebola during a volunteering stint at a Sierra Leone treatment unit arrived safely at the National Institutes of Health’s hospital in Maryland. The patient’s current condition is still being evaluated. The patient was flown in from Sierra Leone completely isolated on a chartered plane, and admitted at 4:44 a.m. The patient’s name, age and gender have not been released as of yet. The patient is the 10th person with Ebola to be treated here in the U.S. and the second admitted to the NIH Clinical Center. NIH has one of the few containment facilities nationwide set up to treat Ebola patients. The center’s Special Clinical Studies Unit is staffed with specialists trained in infectious disease and critical care, and is designed to counteract the spread of highly contagious viruses, including Ebola. Previously, an American nurse was treated there after she contracted Ebola while taking care of a patient in a Dallas hospital. The nurse, Nina Pham, survived the ordeal and is now Ebola-free.
