Ebola: Italian Doctor Infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone

An Italian doctor has been infected with Ebola virus in Sierra Leone while working for NGO Emergency at a clinic for Ebola victims when he contracted the disease

The doctor is has been flown back to Rome for specialist treatment, the health ministry said Monday.

The ministry said the doctor, the first Italian to contract the disease, would arrive in Rome late Monday or early Tuesday and be hospitalized at the Lazzaro Spallanzani national institute for infectious disease.

“We can reassure his family that the doctor is feeling well,” health minister Beatrice Lorenzin said in a statement.“ He did not have a fever or other symptoms during the night and this morning he had his breakfast.”

The NGO said the doctor had developed some unspecified Ebola symptoms but was in a “good general condition.”

The situation in Sierra Leone is alarming: the epidemic is still widening with 100 new cases a day.