American Man Exposed to Ebola in Congo Gets Clean Bill of Health

An American man who had been exposed to Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of Congo left a Nebraska hospital with a clean bill of health Saturday morning. After the man, who has not been identified, returned to the United States from Congo on Dec. 29, he was kept in isolation at the Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha, for a mandatory 21-day monitoring period. He was kept in a “secure area not accessible by the public or any patients,” according to hospital officials. The man, described by hospital officials as a “medical provider,” never showed signs of the potentially deadly virus and “poses no risk to the public,” Nebraska Medical Center said in a press release. Had he developed the hemorrhagic fever, he would have been moved to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, which treated three Ebola patients in 2014. Efforts to combat Ebola in Congo have been dramatically complicated by ongoing civil conflict in the country.