Eeesh

Scientist Is Watched for Signs of Ebola (washingtonpost.com): "A scientist who works in a maximum containment laboratory at Fort Detrick has been placed in isolation after she accidentally stuck herself with a needle while working with mice infected with a weakened form of the Ebola virus.


The woman, whom officials at the Army base declined to identify, has shown no symptoms of the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever during eight days of medical observation in a special isolation facility, said Army spokesman Chuck Dasey. He said she was exposed to the Zaire strain of Ebola, the deadliest of the three types of the virus.


After the accident Feb. 11, the scientist was allowed to go home because there was no danger of her spreading the infection to anyone else at that time, Dasey said. The next day she moved into a suite with two 180-square-foot patient rooms adjoining a larger treatment room. The isolation suite, known on the base as the Slammer, hadn't been used since 1985.


The incubation period for Ebola is two to 21 days, but Dasey said officials planned to keep the woman in isolation for up to 30 days. She is allowed to have visitors because she has shown no signs of being infectious, Dasey said."