Ebola Update: US Patient Under Monitoring Suffers Cardiac Arrest While Jogging

One of five people being monitored for Ebola by an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital suffered cardiac arrest Saturday while out jogging near the hospital, a local television station reported. WOWT-TV said the unnamed patient received assistance from bystanders, who performed CPR until police and fire personnel arrived.

The patient was immediately transported to the hospital, Nebraska Medical Center, for observation. Medical officials said the patient was in stable condition and noted that Saturday's emergency was not related to Ebola. They added that the patient is near the end of an observation period for Ebola.

“It is important for everyone to understand this patient does not have Ebola,” Dr. Phil Smith, director of the medical center's Biocontainment Unit, told WOWT. “Out of an abundance of caution, we ran an Ebola test immediately after the patient was admitted Saturday. That test came back negative. There is no risk to hospital staff, patients, those assisting at the scene or the public.”

The patient is one of five American health care workers who were exposed to Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, one of the West African nations most heavily affected by the Ebola outbreak. They were brought to Nebraska Medical Center for observation and treatment in the event they had contracted the virus. All five patients remain unnamed.

The Ebola outbreak, which has ravaged West Africa for one year, became a “public health emergency of international concern” on Aug. 8, 2014. Since then more than 10,000 people have died, and nearly 25,000 have been infected with Ebola, with some of the worst cases being found in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.