Ebola is back in the United States after an American who contracted the virus in Africa was flown back to the U.S. Friday morning. Here are five things to know about the newest case.
1. The American in question, who has not been named, is a healthcare worker who was volunteering in Sierra Leone in an Ebola treatment unit.
2. The patient was flown into the U.S. via a private charter medevac in isolation.
3. The patient was admitted to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., at 4:44 a.m. ET. The patient's condition is serious, according to the NIH.
4. NIH Clinical Center houses a Special Clinical Studies Unit that is designed to provide high-level isolation and has a staff of infectious disease and clinical care specialists. The hospital was where Nina Pham — a nurse from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas who contracted Ebola there — was successfully treated for the virus. It is also one of the nation's 55 designated Ebola treatment centers.
5. Sierra Leone is one of the countries that has been hit hardest by the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. According to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the death toll of the Ebola outbreak recently topped 10,000. Sierra Leone has seen 3,655 deaths from the virus.
This article was updated March 13 at 12:42 CT to update the patient's condition.