(Reuters) – A U.S. healthcare worker who may have been exposed to Ebola in West Africa arrived at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta early on Thursday for testing and observation, the hospital said.
The patient, who has not been identified, was flown from West Africa and will be monitored to see if he or she has been infected with the virus, the hospital said.
U.S. health officials this week designated 35 hospitals nationwide, including Emory, as Ebola treatment centers.
Emory has treated four patients diagnosed with the virus in its Serious Communicable Diseases Unit, including the first two Americans who contracted Ebola while working in West Africa.
The region is suffering the worst Ebola outbreak ever recorded, with 6,070 deaths out of 17,145 cases as of Nov. 30, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
Nearly all of the deaths have occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; editing by Doina Chiacu)
