Four American health care providers working in Sierra Leone who experienced exposures to the Ebola virus are coming to Nebraska Medicine – Nebraska Medical Center for observation.
These individuals may have come into contact with the patient currently being treated for Ebola at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md.
The health care workers will be placed in quarantine on the med center campus in an area segregated from other patients, students and staff members.
“These people have been exposed to the virus but they aren’t sick and aren’t contagious,” said Phil Smith, M.D., medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medicine and a professor of infectious diseases at UNMC. “In the unlikely instance that one of them does develop symptoms, we would take them to the Biocontainment Unit immediately for evaluation and treatment.”
In an email to Nebraska Medicine employees, Bradley Britigan, M.D., president of Nebraska Medicine and dean of the UNMC College of Medicine, said that the group will be under “active monitoring,” which means they’ll be watched and regularly tested for symptoms.
In addition to providing the attached Q&A sheet for questions that employees may hear, Dr. Britigan reiterated other points that were shared during previous treatments of Ebola patients:
- The safety of our patients, staff, students and visitors is paramount, and we are going above and beyond what’s recommended and required to make sure everyone is safe.
- Coming in direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person is the only way Ebola is transmitted.
- Privacy is essential – please do not attempt to access any patient’s health record.
- All news media inquiries will be directed to Taylor Wilson at 402-871-8338.
“Our medical center has been through this before and if our expertise is needed, we are ready to help,” Dr. Britigan said. “We’ve been successful in these responses previously because we’ve worked as a team; not just the people in the Biocontainment Unit, but all of us across the organization.”