The southern U.S. state of North Carolina is stepping up efforts to guard against the possible spread of the Ebola virus to the United States.
On Sunday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said anyone returning from Africa who worked with Ebola patients will be put into quarantine.
That precautionary measure will mean isolation for three weeks after a missionary’s last contact with an Ebola-infected person.
Two missionaries from North Carolina-based aid organizations contracted the deadly virus working at a clinic in Liberia with Ebola-infected patients.
The missionaries - one from SIM USA and the other from Samaritan’s Purse - are being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is on pace to infect more people than all previous outbreaks of the virus combined.
The World Health Organization on Friday said 1,779 people in four West African nations have contracted the deadly virus so far, and that 961 of them have died.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has activated its emergency operation center at the highest level.
