Health Condition of American Personnel Infected by Ebola at Sierra Leone has Improved

Hospital officials announced on Monday that the American healthcare worker who contracted the dangerous Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone has improved and is now listed in fair condition. The man, whose identity has not been revealed, "has improved from serious to fair condition," said a statement from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

The clinician worked for the global medical charity Partners in Health.

In a statement released on Thursday, PIH co-founder Paul Farmer said that the man had, "in the opinion of some of the best doctors and nurses in the world, turned the corner," after his condition improved from critical to serious.

The patient was evacuated from Sierra Leone on March 14 and brought to the NIH's Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington for treatment. The NIH is the premier US medical research center in the United States.

An American nurse, Nina Pham, was treated at the NIH Clinical Center after she was infected with the Ebola virus at a Texas hospital by a Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, who had initially been misdiagnosed. Pham was declared free of the Ebola virus on October 24, but Duncan died.

More than 10,000 people have died of the Ebola virus since the West African outbreak was identified in early 2014.

Source: Medindia