3rd American With Ebola Lands in US

Dr. Rick Sacra will be treated in Nebraska
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 5, 2014 6:32 AM CDT
Updated Sep 5, 2014 7:56 AM CDT
3rd American With Ebola Lands in US
From left, Dr. Mark Rupp, Dr. Phil Smith, medical director, and Dr. Angela Hewlett, associate medical director, hold a news conference at the Truhlsen Eye Institute in Omaha on Sept. 4, 2014.   (AP Photo/The Omaha World-Herald, Matt Miller)

A doctor who became infected with Ebola while working in Liberia—the third American aid worker sickened with the virus—landed this morning at an Air Force base in Nebraska, Fox News reports, and is expected to arrive at a Nebraska hospital for treatment later today. Officials at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha have said Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, will begin treatment in the hospital's 10-bed special isolation unit, the largest of four such units in the US.

Sacra, who's from the Boston area, opted to head to Liberia after hearing that two other missionaries were sick. He served with the North Carolina-based charity SIM. Sacra wasn't involved in the treatment of Ebola patients but delivered babies, so it's unclear how he got infected with the virus that has killed about 1,900 people. Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the Omaha unit, said the medical team there is discussing experimental treatments, including using blood serum from a patient who has recovered from Ebola. Smith and several other doctors with the unit repeatedly said Sacra's transfer to Omaha posed no threat to the public, noting Ebola is transmitted through close contact with an infected person. (More Rick Sacra stories.)

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