Suspected Ebola Patient Admitted To UC Davis Medical Center In California
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A patient suspected of being infected with Ebola was admitted on Thursday to the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento, the hospital said in a statement.
The statement provided no further immediate information about the patient, except to say the individual was transferred on Thursday morning to UC Davis Medical Center from Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento with "symptoms consistent with Ebola infection."
The hospital did not say whether the patient had been tested for the disease.
It said UC Davis had been designated by the California Department of Public Health as a priority hospital equipped to treat confirmed Ebola patients.
"Measures put in place to protect the health and safety of hospital workers and patients include extensive training on proper use of personal protective equipment and the establishment of a dedicated isolation room for treatment of suspected and confirmed Ebola patients," the hospital said.
The medical center remained open and was operating as normal, the statement said.
At least 10 people are known to have been treated for Ebola in the United States, four of whom were diagnosed with the deadly disease on U.S. soil, during an epidemic that has taken at least 8,800 lives, mostly in West Africa.
Only two people are known to have contracted the virus in the United States - two nurses who treated an Ebola patient from Liberia who became sick while visiting in Dallas. That man, Thomas Duncan, later died.
Dozens of other people tested for Ebola in the United States after showing possible signs of the disease or thought to have been exposed to the virus have turned out not to have been infected.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)