Doctor With Ebola Arrives in U.S. for Treatment

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He became infected in West Africa; will be cared for at specialized Nebraska hospital

WebMD News from HealthDay
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
SATURDAY, Nov. 15, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- A doctor from Sierra Leone who lives in the United States and became infected with Ebola in his native country arrived Saturday at a specialized hospital in Nebraska for treatment.
Dr. Martin Salia arrived by ambulance at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He is a general surgeon who had been working at a hospital in Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown.
Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia are the three West African countries that have been ravaged by the Ebola outbreak that began last spring and is the worst in history.
The hospital said Salia was critically ill and "possibly sicker than the first patients successfully treated in the United States," the Associated Press reported.
Nebraska Medical Center is one of four U.S. hospitals with biocontainment units that include advanced features designed to handle dangerous pathogens like the Ebola virus.
Their special isolation units include layer upon layer of safety measures to prevent the spread of lethal pathogens, not just Ebola. The units include special air filters, dunk tanks full of antiseptic, dedicated lab equipment and so-called autoclaves to sterilize any medical waste before it is transported from a unit.
Salia, 44, lives in Maryland with his wife and is a permanent U.S. resident.
He is the third Ebola patient treated at the Nebraska hospital and the 10th person with Ebola to be treated in the United States. All but one have recovered after treatment. The only patient who didn't recover was Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who became infected with the disease in his homeland before traveling to Dallas in late September to visit family. He died Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
The most recent U.S. patient to be treated for Ebola, Dr. Craig Spencer, was released from a New York City hospital on Tuesday. Spencer, 33, contracted the often-fatal illness while caring for Ebola patients in Guinea.
The disease has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.