Four more Americans who were possibly exposed to Ebola are being flown to the U.S. from Sierra Leone for observation, according to an NBC News report.
In addition to these four, at least 11 other Americans have already been transported back to the U.S. after possibly being exposed to Ebola by coming in contact with an American healthcare worker who contracted the virus in the Ebola-torn West African nation, bringing the total to 15 Americans. The patient is being treated at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md.
So far, none of the at least 15 Americans who were flown back as a precaution have tested positive for the virus, according to NBC, but one was moved to the biocontainment unit at Omaha-based Nebraska Medicine after a change in symptoms.
These Americans were volunteering in Sierra Leone in an Ebola treatment center and are being transported back to the U.S. out of an "abundance of caution" as the Centers for Disease Control conducts contact tracing of the American with Ebola.
According to NBC News, it is still not clear how many people had contact with the person with Ebola. "We're still investigating and hopefully we'll have an answer to that question," Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman, told NBC. "The circumstances around all these exposures is what we are looking at right now."