Maryland

U.S. Nurse Exposed to Ebola to Be Admitted to NIH in Bethesda

Nurse will arrive at Dulles, said Frederick Mayor Randy McClement

An American nurse who was exposed to the Ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone is being admitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

The nurse was expected to be admitted to the facility Thursday, the NIH said in a statement. The nurse has not tested positive for the deadly virus, the NIH said.

The nurse's identity was not released.

An NIH spokeswoman says the nurse will be taken to a special unit designed to isolate transmissible diseases.

The hospital previously helped treat a Dallas nurse infected while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who fell ill with Ebola shortly after arriving in the U.S. and later died. The nurse, Nina Pham, survived and now is Ebola-free.

"I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today," Pham said in a brief statement outside NIH after she was discharged in October. "I am on my way back to recovery, even as I reflect how many others have not been so fortunate."

Pham was flown from Love Field in Dallas to Frederick Municipal Airport before being taken by ambulance to NIH.

The nurse coming from Sierra Leone will arrive at Dulles International Airport, according to a Thursday statement from Frederick Mayor Randy McClement.

"The transfer of the patient will not take place at Frederick Municipal Airport," he said. "This transfer will be handled through Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Dulles has been named one of the approved airports in the United States to handle patient transfers to NIH."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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