An American healthcare worker evacuated from West Africa and currently being treated for the deadly Ebola virus disease might soon be the first American citizen and the third person in the United States to die from this disease.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health in Maryland where the American patient is being cared for said he was in critical condition as of March 16, according to Reuters. The man was previously classified as serious.
The unidentified clinician arrived at the NIH clinical center on March 13. NIH said he was working with Partners In Health at the medical aid group's Sierra Leone Ebola center.
Based in Boston, Partners In health is a non-profit health care organization working to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair.
Partners in Health said 10 of its clinicians in Sierra Leone came to the aid of their stricken colleague. They were all subsequently identified as contacts of the patient being treated at NIH.
The American contracted Ebola while working in Port Loko, Sierra Leone. He collapsed in the hospital and was diagnosed with Ebola on March 10. He was medically evacuated to the NIH on March 13.
The man's 10 exposed colleagues were also flown back to the U.S. and went into isolation at designated Ebola treatment facilities in Nebraska, Georgia, and Maryland.
Four are being monitored by doctors at Nebraska Medicine. One of these victims developed symptoms on March 15 and was moved into the Nebraska Medicine biocontainment facility. Fortunately, some of those symptoms have since resolved.
The hospital said a fifth person from the original exposure group in Sierra Leone was transferred to the Nebraska facility for monitoring on March 16.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is continuing to investigate the circumstances around the 10 exposures, said Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman.
Should this victim die, he will be only the third person to die from Ebola in the United States and the first American citizen to suffer this fate.
The first person to die from Ebola in the country, Thomas Eric Duncan, was a Liberian national visiting the United States from Liberia. He was diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas, Texas and died from the disease on October 8, 2014.
The second person and the first American to die from Ebola was Dr. Martin Salia, a surgeon, who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone while volunteering to care for Ebola victims. A native of Sierra Leone, Dr. Salia was married to an American citizen.