The National Institutes of Health (NIH) confirmed on Tuesday that the patient who was flown back to the U.S. from Sierra Leone and admitted to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., on September 28 for observation, following a high-risk exposure to Ebola virus infection, was discharged to his home.
The patient has given NIH permission to release the following information: The high-risk exposure was a needle stick injury. The initial hospitalization was characterized by a brief period of fever that was subsequently determined to not be related to infection with Ebola virus.
Because he had an exposure and a fever, there was a greater chance he had active infection, thus the reason for isolation. Currently, the patient feels well and has no fever.
CDC guidelines are being followed and the patient will remain in his home, check his temperature twice a day, until the completion of a 21-day observation period from the time of reported exposure.
No additional details about the patient are available at this time.
Source: NIH press release, adapted.
