The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed on Saturday that at least 10 Americans who may have been exposed to the potentially fatal Ebola virus in Sierra Leone were being flown to the U.S. for observations.

Although none of these individuals have shown symptoms of infection nor tested positive of the disease, CDC said that they represent the biggest number of Americans to be sent home over concern that they may have been exposed to the infectious disease.

On March 12, a health care worker who volunteered in Sierra Leone tested positive for the virus and was sent home to the U.S. He is now being treated at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where doctors said that his condition was serious.

Some of the Americans who were being transported back to the U.S. via a non-commercial air transport may have been in contact with this healthcare worker or may have had a similar exposure. 

CDC said that four of these Americans who are believed to have had more exposure to the Ebola-struck healthcare worker than the others will be quarantined at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha while the rest will be housed near University of Nebraska Medical Center, Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and the NIH.

These hospitals are three of only four in the U.S. that have biocontainment units for treating highly infectious diseases such as the Ebola.

"(The) CDC and the State Department are facilitating the return of additional American citizens who had potential exposure to the index patient or exposures similar to those that resulted in the infection of the index patient," CDC said.

Although 10 Americans were being sent home, CDC spokesperson Thomas Skinner said that investigation is ongoing and there is the possibility that more Americans will be evacuated from West Africa.

CDC has already sent a team to Sierra Leone on Friday to investigate how the healthcare worker became exposed to Ebola and who might have been in contact with this person.

Figures from the World Health Organization show that Ebola has already killed over 10,000 in West Africa. American healthcare workers who have contracted Ebola from the region often fare well on their return to the U.S to get treated for the virus albeit no cure for the disease has yet been approved.

Treating patients often involve giving them intravenous fluids or solutions that contain electrolytes because they are often dehydrated.

Photo: NIAID | Flickr