An American medical worker in Africa may have had too close a brush with the deadly Ebola virus that is presently devastating the Democratic Republic of Congo . He returned to the U.S. and is now at a infirmary in Nebraska , where doc are keeping a close-fitting eye on him .
On Saturday , the University of Nebraska Medical Center announced that it would be supervise an American who was perhaps exposed to the computer virus while put up medical help in the DRC . The man has since been aviate to the centre in Omaha and is being carefully catch for any go forth symptom . So far , NPRreports , he does n’t come out to be in any danger .
“ This person may have been exposed to the computer virus but is not ill and is not communicable , ” Ted Cieslak , an infectious diseases specialist with Nebraska Medicine and associate prof of epidemiology in the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health , say in astatement . “Should any symptoms develop , the Nebraska Medicine / UNMC team is among the most dependent in the humankind to deal with them . ”
Ebola is n’t communicable until after symptom appear , which can initially let in high fever and muscle pain and later profuse bleeding and vomiting . Symptoms can take anywhere from two days to several weeks to appear , and the man will be monitored for up to two week . For now , the man technically is n’t a affected role , but if he does become sick , he ’ll be channel to the center ’s Biocontainment Unit . At that distributor point , UNMC has pronounce , it will begin to provide unconstipated update on his condition .
This would n’t be the first encounter UNMC has had with Ebola . During the most widespread Ebola eruption to appointment , which sickened well-nigh 30,000 people and killed over 11,000 between 2014 to 2016 , doctors at the center treat and monitored several the great unwashed who had abridge or been exposed to the disease . And the state is one of the few to have a consecrated biocontainment unit .
It should go without saying that the human is n’t turn over a risk to anyone else ’s wellness in the U.S. , if not for the fact that plenty of citizenry and even government officialscollectively panickedthe last metre the virus made it to the States .
The current outbreak in the DRC is n’t as far - reaching as the 2014 outbreak , which mostly affected West Africa , but it ’s already become thesecond largest outbreakin the known history of the virus . harmonise to theWorld Health Organization , at least 591 the great unwashed are suspected or confirm to have come down with Ebola , while at least 357 have perish as a result . And despite the slap-up availability of a data-based vaccinum and data-based drugs during this outbreak , extraneous component have aided its banquet .
Much of the DRC is embroiled in fury , with constant conflict between maverick militias and the political science . That ’s made it grueling for wellness tending workers to track potential chain of contagion , vaccinate masses at risk , and strain patients in time to cover them ( most recently , a difference of opinion between dissident and governance soldiery led to patient and stafffleeinga governance health center in Beni ) . The U.S. has , to much literary criticism from public wellness experts , pulled back its regime aesculapian personnel from the DRC , citing security risk over the fierceness .
While the World Health Organization reports there aresignsthat the latest wave of guinea pig has start out to die out down in some areas , there ’s also still the chance the outbreak may spread elsewhere , even beyond the border of the DRC .
[ UNMCviaNPR ]
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