1. A member of the first batch of the 10-member Korea Disaster Response Team (KDRT) dispatched to Sierra Leone to join the fight against the Ebola epidemic was exposed to the virus while treating a patient on December 30, Korea Standard Time (KST). The government of the Republic of Korea, in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), is looking into the full range of possible measures to deal with the situation and bring the worker healthily home to his/her family after the latent period. Those measures include sending the worker to Germany on January 3, KST, where he/she will undergo close examination during the 21-day latent period to see whether he/she has contracted the virus.

◦ The medical worker, while drawing blood from an Ebola patient at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Goderich near Freetown, the KDRT’s work place, happened to get the glove torn on the left index finger, and that finger came in contact with the syringe needle. So far, he/she neither has had any skin damage or other particular injuries nor has shown any Ebola symptoms, such as fever or nausea.

* Pursuant to the previously concluded ROK-US memorandum of understanding, the US air ambulance, Phoenix Air, will be used to take the worker to Europe.

2. Immediately after the situation arose, the ROK government, led by the emergency relief headquarters set up at the Foreign Ministry, learned about it from the KDRT’s support team dispatched to Sierra Leone. It also consulted closely with the ETC operator, the Italian NGO “Emergency,” on ways to respond to the situation should the Korean worker be confirmed to have indeed contracted the virus.

3. The medical workers of the KDRT sent to Sierra Leone on December 21, 2014, are actively providing medical services for Ebola patients together with their counterparts from the US, Italy and other countries dispatched to the ETC in Goderich. The ROK government will continue efforts to make the KDRT’s services fruitful and to ensure the safety of the medical personnel. 


                            Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
                            Ministry of National Defense 
                            Ministry of Health and Welfare

* unofficial translation