An American aid worker who was infected with the deadly Ebola virus while working in West Africa will be flown to the United States to be treated in a high-security ward at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, hospital officials said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The aid worker, whose name has not been released, will be moved in the next several days to a special isolation unit at Emory, Reuters reported. The unit was set up in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said the CDC was not aware of any Ebola patient ever being treated in the United States, but five people in the past decade have entered the country with either Lassa Fever or Marburg Fever, hemorrhagic fevers similar to Ebola, according to Reuters.
News of the transfer follows reports of the declining health of two infected U.S. aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia on behalf of North Carolina-based Christian relief groups Samaritan's Purse and SIM, Reuters reported.
Brantly and Writebol "were in stable but grave" condition as of early Thursday morning, the relief organizations said, according to Reuters. A spokeswoman for the groups could not confirm whether the patient being transferred to Emory was one of their aid workers.
Earlier on Thursday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the State Department was working with the CDC on medical evacuations of infected American humanitarian aid workers, according to Reuters.
The outbreak in West Africa is the worst in history, having killed more than 700 people since February, Reuters reported.
On Thursday, the CDC issued a travel advisory urging people to avoid all non-essential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the epicenter of the outbreak, according to Reuters.
