Introduction
The Ebola virus is an epidemic ravaging the West African
countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, and threatens to
become a broader pandemic. The first known cases of Ebola infected
individuals being in the U.S. were two American healthcare workers
who contracted the disease while caring for patients in Liberia,
and were then transported back into the U.S. to receive treatment.
The infected healthcare professionals were transported in specially
equipped vehicles (both ground and air transportation) and assisted
by other healthcare professionals in "Haz-Mat" type
protective gear. Once in the U.S., both were quarantined in special
care units in hospitals for a period of several weeks. With the use
of experimental medications not yet certified for public use by the
Food and Drug Administration, the two workers fully recovered from
their illness. No one else contracted the virus from these two
individuals.
