“On Friday, June 5, NIH admitted a patient with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), a relatively rare type of TB that is resistant to many medications typically used to treat TB,” NIH said.
The patient was transferred to the Bethesda, Maryland health facility via special air and ground ambulances, NIH said.
NIH said that the patient is currently being treated in an isolation room at the NIH Clinical Center, which is designed to treat people with respiratory infections. In the past, the NIH Clinical Center was also used to treat patients who suffered from the deadly Ebola virus.
“NIH is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of all concerned, and the situation is of minimal risk to other Clinical Center patients, NIH staff, and the public,” the medical research center said.
The NIH declined to tell Sputnik the gender of the patient, but US media reported that the patient is a woman who may have been exposed to the virus while traveling from India via Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
Extensively Drug-resistant TB is resistant to the strongest drugs used to fight TB, leaving patients with few effective treatment options, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
