New Mexico Woman Being Treated for Possible Ebola Exposure

A 30-year-old woman who was working in Africa as a teacher, and has been showing similar symptoms to those that are characteristic of the fatal Ebola virus, is being tested and treated at the University of New Mexico Hospital for the disease.

The woman reportedly returned to New Mexico from Sierra Leone — one of several countries in West Africa where the Ebola virus has claimed more than 1,100 lives thus far — on August 4, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

The patient’s symptoms were a sore throat, headaches, muscle aches, and fever. The state Department of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say she is being tested “out of an abundance of caution.”

The woman had no known exposure to the Ebola virus and her test results are expected by the end of this week, the Journal notes.

At least seven individuals across the United States have been tested for the deadly, hemorrhagic virus so far, which holds a gestation period of anywhere between 2 and 21 days. (Click here to read some facts about Ebola from Breitbart News.)

Like any person who is undergoing testing to see if they’ve been exposed to Ebola, the New Mexico patient is being held in an isolated, negative pressure room in the hospital which allows air to flow inside the room but keeps everything inside the chamber, in order to avoid contamination. 

The Ebola virus is not spreadable through the air, food or water. It can be reportedly only be spread through the exchange of bodily fluids with a person who has been infected with the disease.

The Journal notes that health care workers treating the woman at UNMH wear protective gowns,gloves, face mask and eye protection as precautionary measures and that the hospital is limiting hervisitors.

There are only two confirmed cases of Ebola in the United States so far. They are two Americans, Christian charity workersDr. Kent Brantley and Nancy Writebol, a missionary who worked for Dr. Brantley. They contracted Ebola while working in Liberia and are currently being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.