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CDC Worker Flown Home After Low Risk Exposure

By Peter R | Update Date: Aug 28, 2014 06:15 PM EDT

Stroking concerns of Ebola spread, the Center for Disease Control on Wednesday said one of its employees who came in contact with an international health worker infected with the virus, was brought home to the US.

The CDC said on Wednesday that its staff member had worked within a distance of three-feet from the infected health worker for a prolonged period but termed the contact low-risk, the Daily Mail reported.

The staffer was brought on a chartered flight as CDC's policy mandates only private travel within 21 of days of coming in contact with the Ebola virus. This move is aimed to arrest spread of infection, besides ensuring timely help to the patient in case of symptom manifestations. Ebola symptoms can appear anytime within days or three weeks.

Meanwhile CDC's employee has not shown any symptoms of infection with the virus and is said to be feeling fine. "CDC employee is not sick, has no symptoms of Ebola and therefore poses no Ebola-related risk to friends, family, co-workers or the public," Fox News said quoting from a CDC statement.

According to USA Today, the employee will be monitored for 21 days but not will not be isolated as the staffer had taken adequate measures for infection control while in West Africa.

"All CDC staff who return from working in the outbreak area check their temperatures twice a day for fever, and have been instructed to call a doctor immediately if they develop a fever or other symptoms," USA Today reported. Of the 240 health workers infected, 120 have died from the disease.

A WHO health worker on Tuesday who tested positive for the virus was withdrawn from Sierra Leone while the health facility where the worker was providing care, has been closed pending safety reassessment. A British nurse who was also infected with the deadly virus was flown to London for treatment where he has received experimental drug ZMapp. 

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