WASHINGTON: A doctor from Sierra Leone with US residency infected with Ebola could travel to the United States to be treated for the deadly virus, CNN and medical officials said Thursday.
The man was in Sierra Leone when he became sick, said a spokesperson from the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where the patient may be treated.
"This patient contracted the disease in Sierra Leone and recently tested positive for Ebola," the hospital said in a statement.
Officials said he "will soon be evaluated for possible treatment of the disease here."
The man is currently in Sierra Leone, and a jet will fly to the West African nation to transport the man to the United States if he is well enough to travel.
"The members of the crew will determine whether the patient is stable enough for transport -- if he is, he would arrive in Omaha sometime Saturday afternoon," the hospital said.
CNN said the man was a surgeon, but it was not clear how he may have contracted the disease. The news network said he is married to a US citizen and has several children.
The Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit is one of only a handful of hospitals in the United States with facilities to treat Ebola.
Nine people have been treated for the killer virus in the United States, but only one -- Liberian-born Thomas Eric Duncan -- has died from the disease on US soil.
There are currently no cases of Ebola in the country today.
West Africa is battling the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever, which has killed more than 5,100 people and infected nearly 15,000 in total, mostly in hardest hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
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