News: American doctor exposed to Ebola admitted to NIH for observation in isolation unit

An American doctor will be treated for Ebola after being exposed to the virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone.

The physician, who has not been named, is expected be admitted for observation and clinical trials at an isolation unit in Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The action is being taken out of 'an abundance of caution', the agency said. 

'NIH is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of our patients, NIH staff and the public,' said an agency statement, adding that there is very low risk to the patient's colleagues.

No further information has been released about the patient.

NIH infectious disease chief Dr. Anthony Fauci said that, in general, an exposure to Ebola doesn't necessarily mean someone will become sick.

'When someone is exposed, you want to put them into the best possible situation so if something happens you can take care of them,' Fauci said. 

The death toll from an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has risen to at least 3,091 out of 6,574 probable, suspected and confirmed cases, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Quarantine: An American doctor (not pictured) that was exposed to Ebola while volunteering in Sierra Leone is to be admitted to this isolation unit in Bethesda, Maryland, run by the National Institutes of Health tomorrow.

The outbreak that began in a remote corner of Guinea has taken hold of much of neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone, prompting warnings that tens of thousands of people may die from the worst outbreak of the disease on record. 

Four other Americans aid workers who were infected with Ebola while volunteering in the West African outbreak have been treated at hospitals in Georgia and Nebraska. 

One remains hospitalized while the rest have recovered.

The third American aid worker who contracted Ebola in Africa was released on Thursday from a Nebraska hospital.

An elated Dr. Rick Sacra said at a news conference that he was cleared of the Ebola virus by the federal Centers from Disease Control and left the isolation unit at the Nebraska Medical Center on Thursday morning.

'I feel great, except that I am extremely weak,' Sacra said. 

The 51-year-old doctor from Worcester, Massachusetts, may return to Africa someday to help, but he said he expects a long recovery ahead based on what his friend and fellow Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly said.

'I never felt like I was not going to make it. The care was so excellent, so speedy and so prompt,' said Sacra, who contracted Ebola while delivering babies at a hospital in Liberia with the North Carolina-based charity SIM and arrived in Omaha on September 5. 

He is also a faculty member at the University Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.

Governments are scrambling to contain the disease outbreak, and the United States has promised to send 3,000 soldiers to the region to help.