Another Ebola patient coming to Emory

in Atlanta
From Miriam Falco, Debra Goldschmidt and Jamie Crawford, CNN
September 9, 2014 -- Updated 0637 GMT (1437 HKT)
Atlanta (CNN) -- Another patient with Ebola is heading to the isolation unit at Emory University
Hospital in Atlanta.
An air ambulance will fly the patient from West Africa and is expected to arrive on Tuesday
morning, Emory Healthcare said in a statement.
University officials said Monday that they could not reveal additional details because of
confidentiality restrictions.
The State Department described the patient as a U.S. citizen who contracted the disease in
Sierra Leone.
Earlier Monday, the World Health Organization said a doctor working in an Ebola treatment center in
Sierra Leone had tested positive. WHO would not reveal the nationality of the doctor nor to where
he or she was being evacuated.
Last month, two Americans infected with Ebola were flown to Atlanta for treatment at Emory. They
were given an experimental drug to fight the deadly disease and were later released from the
hospital.
Another American doctor infected with Ebola arrived in Nebraska for treatment last week.
Officials have warned that the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history is hitting West Africa.
WHO said Monday the rapid spreading of the virus in Liberia shows no sign of slowing.
"The number of new cases is increasing exponentially," WHO said, calling the situation a "dire
emergency with ... unprecedented dimensions of human suffering."
It's a crisis unlike any other during previous Ebola outbreaks, according to WHO.
Taxis packed with families who fear they've contracted the deadly virus crisscross the Liberian
capital, searching for a place where they can be treated, the WHO said. But there are no free
beds.
"As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with
patients," the U.N. group said.
The Ebola virus causes viral hemorrhagic fever, which according to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention refers to virus types that affect multiple organ systems in the body and are
often accompanied by bleeding.
Humans contract Ebola through contact with the bodily fluids of infected animals or the bodily
fluids of infected humans.
No vaccine or medicine has been proved to cure the disease, but the first human trial of an
experimental Ebola vaccine began last week.
More than 3,600 cases of Ebola have been reported since the first documented case in
December, WHO has said. Of those cases, there have been more than 1,800 fatalities, the
agency has said.
More than 40% of the cases have been diagnosed in the past three weeks, the agency said.
CNN's Miriam Falco and Debra Goldschmidt reported from Atlanta. CNN's Jamie Crawford reported from Washington.
CNN's Susannah Cullinane, Madison Park, Carol Jordan, Catherine E. Shoichet and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this
report.