12 min ago
Here's why American coronavirus patients are being sent to Nebraska
From CNN's Jen Christensen
After a two-week quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, some American passengers were sent back to the states. However, for the 13 of them who either tested positive or had a high likelihood of testing positive, they must make one more stop in Nebraska.
They're heading to the Omaha-based Nebraska Medicine/University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). The unit is no stranger to treating patients with difficult diseases.
The special 10-bed biocontainment unit is a state-of-the-art facility that has been doing this kind of complicated work for nearly 15 years.
It is a secured area with its own ventilation system that is isolated from the rest of the hospital and is staffed by people with specialized training in communicable diseases. It had been commissioned by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2005.
In 2014, the unit successfully treated three patients with Ebola, including Dr. Rick Sacra, an American physician from Massachusetts who got sick while working with Ebola patients in Africa.