Claire Lee

The Korea Herald

Publication Date : 03-01-2015

A South Korean health care worker who had been caring for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone is to be sent to a hospital in Germany after reporting worries of a possible Ebola infection, the government announced Friday.

The health professional, who had been working in the West African country since December 27, tore a protective glove while drawing blood from an Ebola patient Tuesday. The professionals exposed skin then inadvertently made contact with the needle, the Health Ministry said. The Ministry requested that the gender of the health care worker not be revealed.

To be more precise, the worker said, It felt like the needle grazed my skin, Park Jong-chul from the Health Ministry told The Korea Herald.

The workers glove became torn because the patient was moving while blood was being drawn, said Kwon Jun-wook, the director general of public health policy at the Health Ministry. The Ebola patients condition was serious, he added.

The highly contagious Ebola virus is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids of infected patients, such as blood, sweat, saliva or semen.

The health care worker, who has no symptoms of Ebola, will be sent to a hospital in Berlin on Saturday to be tested and monitored, said Oh Young-ju, the director-general for development cooperation at the Foreign Ministry. The worker will be monitored at the German hospital for at least 21 days, the incubation period of the virus, he added.

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Korean aid worker in Sierra Leone to be sent to Germany for Ebola test