{UAH} AN EBOLA PETIENT ARRIVES INTO UNITED STATES TODAY

Doctor Critically Ill With Ebola Headed to U.S. Hospital

By Sofia Horta e Costa and Carter Dougherty - Nov 15, 2014

A critically ill physician who was infected with the Ebola virus while treating patients in Sierra Leone is set to arrive in Omaha today after he was deemed stable enough to be transported to the U.S. for treatment.

The doctor, Martin Salia, was chief medical officer and surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, the United Methodist church said on its website.

The hospital was closed Nov. 11 after Salia tested positive for Ebola, the church said. He is the sixth doctor in Sierra Leone to be infected with the deadly virus; the other five doctors died.

The patient, whose condition is considered critical, boarded a Phoenix Air plane from the West African country late yesterday, Nebraska Medical Center said in a statement. He may be sicker than other patients who survived treatment in the U.S., according to the hospital.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the patient, a permanent U.S. resident from Sierra Leone, is being evacuated at the request of his wife, who lives inMaryland. She will reimburse the U.S. government for the expense.

‘Every Precaution’

“Every precaution is being taken to ensure the evacuation is completed safely and securely, that critical care is provided en route, and that strict isolation is maintained,” Psaki said in an e-mailed statement.

The patient will arrive around 4 p.m. central U.S. time, said Taylor Wilson, a spokesman for the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He declined to confirm his identity because of U.S. privacy rules.

Phoenix Air’s medical evacuation planes are equipped with a tented isolation unit called an Aeromedical Biological Containment System to keep the patient from infecting others. Previous evacuation flights have cost about $200,000.

Salia will be the third person treated for the deadly virus at Nebraska Medical Center, following a missionary worker, Rick Sacra, and a freelance journalist, Ashoka Mukpo, who were evacuated from West Africa after becoming infected. The Omaha medical center has a sealed biocontainment unit separate from other areas used to care for patients. Treatment for the Ebola patients has included experimental drugs and blood serum from an Ebola survivor.

While the virus has spread throughout West Africa, killing more than 5,170, its impact has been mostly limited to the countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. A separate outbreak in Congo which killed at least 49 people is over, the Associated Press reported today, citing Congo’s Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi.

Advanced Stage

Treating Ebola patients in a more advanced stage has proven tougher and more dangerous. Eight people treated in U.S. hospitals have been cured, and one died. The one person to die of Ebola in the U.S., Thomas Eric Duncan, was initially released from a Dallas hospital in September before returning with worse symptoms. Two nurses were infected after contact with Duncan, though both recovered.

There is no specific treatment to cure the disease. Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. They are frequently dehydrated and need intravenous fluids or oral rehydration with solutions that contain electrolytes.

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