Health Highlights: March 13, 2015

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

American Health Worker With Ebola Arrives in U.S.

An American health worker infected with Ebola arrived from West Africa Friday and was admitted to a National Institutes of Health high-level containment facility in Maryland.

The NIH said the unidentified patient was infected in Sierra Leone and was flown to the U.S. in isolation on a chartered flight. The patient is the 11th person with Ebola to be treated in the U.S. since August, NBC News reported.

The high-level containment facility in Bethesda is the same one where nurse Nina Pham was treated for Ebola and where a doctor and nurse with suspected Ebola infection were kept until it was determined they did not have the deadly virus.

Of the 10 people treated for Ebola so far in the U.S., eight have survived and two have died, NBC News reported.

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Dr. Nancy Snyderman Leaving NBC News

Dr. Nancy Snyderman announced Thursday that she is leaving her post as chief medical editor at NBC News.

After going to Liberia in late 2014 to report on the Ebola outbreak, Snyderman agreed to a self-quarantine upon her return to the U.S., but was later found to have violated the quarantine. She later apologized for the violation, Politico reported.

In a statement, Synderman said she was taking a faculty position “at a major U.S. medical school,” Politico reported.

“I stepped out of the OR a few years ago and it is now time for me to return to my roots, so I am stepping down from my position as chief medical editor at NBC News,” Snyderman said in the statement.

“Covering the Ebola epidemic last fall in Liberia, and then becoming part of the story upon my return to the U.S., contributed to my decision that now is the time to return to academic medicine,” she said.

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Ebola Death Toll Passes 10,000: WHO

The death toll in the largest-ever Ebola outbreak has passed 10,000, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Nearly all the victims have been in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Only 15 Ebola deaths have occurred in other countries: Mali, Nigeria and the United States, the Associated Press reported.

Liberia released its last Ebola patient on March 5 and if no new cases are found over 42 days, the country will be declared Ebola-free.

However, dozens of new cases are being reported every week in Guinea and Sierra Leone, and there are still large numbers of Ebola deaths occurring outside of hospitals, the AP reported.

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