Atlanta hospital to receive Ebola patient

ATLANTA – Emory University Hospital has been informed of plans to transfer a patient with the Ebola virus to its special facility containment unit within the next several days.

It is not known when the patient will arrive.

In a release, the Atlanta hospital said they have a specially built isolation unit set up in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to treat patients who are exposed to certain serious infectious diseases. The facility, they said, is physically separate from other patient areas of the hospital and is equipped to provide an extremely high level of clinical isolation.

Emory's facility is one of only four of its type in the nation.

A medical transport plane departed the United States on Thursday afternoon, headed to Liberia to pick up an American Ebola patient.

Two American medical missionaries working with Ebola patients in Liberia have been diagnosed with the virus. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who worked at a medical center operated by the North Carolina-based Samaritan's Purse, were listed in stable but grave condition, according to a statement from the organization.

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said he doubted Ebola could spread in the United States. "That is not in the cards," he told reporters Thursday.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the federal government was helping organize any needed evacuations.

"The State Department, together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has the lead for the U.S. government in the Ebola situation, is working to facilitate access to aviation services for medical evacuations for U.S. citizens directly affected by the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa," Harf told NBC News.

"If and when that happens ... every precaution will be taken to move the patients safety and securely to provide critical care en route and to maintain strict isolation upon arrival in the United States," she added.

Contributing: USA TODAY