10 Americans to leave Sierra Leone amid Ebola scare

Ten health care workers are being flown to the USA after coming in contact with an American health worker who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone. The workers are flying on non-commercial aircraft to limit contact with others.

The 10 came to the aid of an American colleague with Ebola while in West Africa but so far have no symptoms, according to Partners in Health, a Boston-based aid organization. They are being flown to the USA "out of an abundance of caution," the aid group says.

The American health worker with Ebola was volunteering with Partners in Health and arrived at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., on Friday after a flight on a chartered plane. The worker, who has not been identified, is in serious condition, according to the NIH.

The 10 clinicians will be flown to areas near the three main hospitals that have treated Ebola patients: the NIH, Atlanta's Emory University Hospital and the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The patients will follow recommended monitoring and movement guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including direct, active monitoring by public health staff and, if necessary, voluntary isolation during the 21-day incubation period for Ebola, according to the CDC.

"They will remain in isolation near designated U.S. Ebola treatment facilities to ensure access to rapid testing and treatment in the unlikely instance that any become symptomatic," according to a statement from Partners in Health.

The United Kingdom also has evacuated six health workers from Sierra Leone.

A British military health worker infected with Ebola was flown Thursday to the Royal Free Hospital in London for treatment, according to Public Health England. Two military personnel who were in contact with the patient were flown to London on the same flight. They were assessed for Ebola symptoms and released from the same hospital. Two additional British military health workers who had been in contact with the patient were taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. One has been discharged.

In a separate incident, a British health worker in Sierra Leone had a potential Ebola exposure from a needle stick. That health worker is being admitted to the Royal Free Hospital for assessment but has no symptoms.

Four of the American health workers will be quarantined on the campus of the Nebraska Medical Center, segregated from other patients, students and staff.

"These people have been exposed to the virus but they aren't sick and aren't contagious," said Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit at the Nebraska Medical Center. "In the unlikely event that one of them does develop symptoms, we would take them to the biocontainment unit immediately for evaluation and treatment. Because we have individuals to monitor simultaneously, the safest and most efficient way to do that is in a group setting."

People with Ebola can spread the disease only when they have symptoms, such as a fever, and they're most contagious in advanced stages of the disease, when vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding may occur.

The Ebola patient at the NIH is the 11th to be treated in the USA. Eight Americans treated for Ebola have survived. Two patients from West Africa died of the virus.

According to the World Health Organization, 24,509 people have been infected with Ebola in connection with the West African outbreak, which began in December 2013. More than 10,000 people have died, largely in the hard-hit countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Liberia has had no new Ebola cases in the past two week, but Sierra Leone and Guinea each reported 58 cases in the week that ended March 8. Although the number of new cases in those two countries hasn't declined much since January, the WHO says that they are concentrated in a smaller area, making it easier to conduct follow-up visits and trace contacts.

Health workers continue to bear some of the highest risks for Ebola. At least 840 health workers have been infected with Ebola and 491 have died since the outbreak began, according to the WHO.