A doctor exposed to Ebola in Sierra Leone will be transferred to America and observed at the National Institutes of Health hospital in Maryland, according to the agency Saturday. The American physician will be enrolled in clinical studies upon their return, but NIH infectious disease chief Dr. Anthony Fauci stressed that receiving treatment at the Bethesda center does not confirm that the doctor was infected with the deadly virus.

"When someone is exposed, you want to put them into the best possible situation so if something happens you can take care of them," Dr. Fauci said.

The patient, whose name has not been released, will be kept in the "high-level isolation" care of infectious diseases and critical care specialists. This will hopefully limit the amount of risk the doctor will have of spreading the disease to others. The agency said this move is out of an "abundance of caution."

The NIH said the patient may arrive as early as Sunday to begin treatment.

"It is important to remember that Ebola patients can be safely cared for at any hospital that follows CDC's infection control recommendations and can isolate a patient in a private room," the agency said in a statement.

In the past weeks, two other American doctors and four American aid workers contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia and other affected regions. They have received treatment in U.S. facilities in Georgia and Nebraska. One aid worker remains hospitalized, but all others made full recoveries from the infection.

The outbreak of Ebola sweeping West Africa has killed more than 3,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone as well as been diagnosed in 6,500 people. The U.S. and other global partners are sending food, medicine and other supplies to aid the recovery. World health officials caution that this epidemic will likely worsen before it gets better.