Update: 4 a.m. ET Friday:
NBC news has identified the freelance cameraman who tested positive for Ebola as 33-year-old Ashoka Mukpo. He was hired on Tuesday to be a second cameraman for the network's team covering the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Mukpo had been working in West Africa for the last three years on various projects.
Original Post:
An American cameraman, working for NBC News in Liberia, has tested positive for Ebola,the network said in a memo to staff on Thursday.
"We are doing everything we can to get him the best care possible," NBC News President Deborah Turness wrote. "He will be flown back to the United States for treatment at a medical center that is equipped to handle Ebola patients."
NBC News reports that the man felt "tired and achy" on Wednesday and then discovered that he was running a slight fever.
"He immediately quarantined himself and sought medical advice," NBC reports. "On Thursday morning, the 33 year-old American went to a Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) treatment center to be tested for the virus. The positive result came back just under 12 hours later."
The cameraman had been hired to work with NBC News Chief Medical Editor and Correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman.
The man, whom the network is not naming, is the fifth American to be evacuated from West Africa since this latest outbreak began.
Dr. Rick Sacra, who was working at a hospital in Liberia, was released from a Nebraska hospital Sept. 26.
Dr. Kent Brantly, who worked for the aid group Samaritan's Purse, and Nancy Writebol, a clinical nurse who worked with the missionary group SIM, were released from an Atlanta hospital in August.
That hospital, Emory University Hospital, was treating a third patientwith the virus in September but that patient hasn't been identified.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAxNzg0MDExMDEyMTYyMjc1MDE3NGVmMw004))
