Dr. Rick Sacra, the Massachusetts doctor who was treated for and recovered from Ebola last month, has been discharged from the hospital after being treated for possible pneumonia concerns, according to a statement released Monday afternoon.
Sacra, who had been recovering at his Holden, Massachussetts, home from the Ebola virus, was taken to a Boston-area emergency room on Saturday with a cough and a fever. He was then transferred to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.
He was treated for respiratory health concerns, but hospital officials took extra precautions in case it was a relapse of Ebola. He had been in isolation, but was removed after it was learned Sunday that he had tested negative for Ebola.
"As we noted in the statement that was issued late Sunday night, the CDC notified us that Dr. Sacra tested negative for Ebola," the hospital said in a statement Monday. "Dr. Sacra has since been discharged, and he and his family ask for privacy. UMass Memorial will not be releasing any further information regarding Dr. Sacra."
Sacra, 51, is one of three American aid workers successfully treated after contracting the Ebola virus in West Africa. He has spent much of the last 15 years working in Liberia as a missionary doctor. He had been working at a Liberian hospital with the North Carolina-based charity SIM when he contracted Ebola.
