An American healthcare worker who contracted Ebola while volunteering in Sierra Leone and came back for treatment Friday is now in critical condition, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said Monday.
"NIH physicians have changed the status of the patient with Ebola virus disease being treated at the NIH Clinical Center from serious to critical condition," the NIH said in a brief statement. "No additional details about the patient are being shared at this time."
The news means that the condition of the person, who was taken to the NIH Clinical Center via a private charter aircraft last Friday, has worsened.
On Sunday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement it's still investigating potential Ebola exposure to this index patient in Sierra Leone, including several American citizens.
Americans who had potential exposure to the patient will "be transported to the U.S. by non-commercial air transport and will be near the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health, or Emory University Hospital," which all have biocontainment facilities designated to treat Ebola, the CDC said.
Currently, none of these individuals have been identified as having the deadly disease.