MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) – A patient with Ebola virus symptoms has been hospitalized in California's Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center, the center announced late Tuesday.
"We are working with the Sacramento County Division of Public Health regarding a patient admitted to the Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be testing blood samples to rule out the presence of the virus," Dr. Stephen Parodi, infectious disease specialist and director of hospital operations at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said in a statement.
Even though the "infection with the virus is unconfirmed," the patient has been isolated in order to protect medical workers and other patients, Parodi said.
The "low-risk" patient was "tested out of an abundance of caution," the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) said in a separate statement.
"There are currently no confirmed cases of Ebola in California. There have been no patients admitted to California hospitals who are considered to be at high risk of Ebola according to CDC criteria," the CDPH said.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a deadly disease transmitted through direct contact with the blood or fluids of the infected. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the Ebola virus, which has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent.
The ongoing Ebola outbreak is the worst in history and started in Guinea and spread to Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. According to recent World Health Organization estimates, the death toll from the virus has exceeded 1,140. A total of 2,127 people have been infected.
Several companies are currently working on anti-Ebola drugs, but they are in the experimental stage and have only been tested on animals and a handful of humans.
Last week, the WHO declared it ethical to use untested drugs to treat victims of the outbreak.