Officials Designate 35 U.S. Hospitals for Ebola Care

Health officials have designated 35 hospitals across the country as Ebola treatment centers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the list of hospitals on Tuesday. Most are clustered in metropolitan areas like New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Washington D.C.

For more than a month, health officials have been talking to -- and evaluating --hospitals that could serve as referral treatment centers for new Ebola cases that might occur. The 35 hospitals are deemed to have the staff, equipment and training to safely and effectively care for Ebola.

Meanwhile, West Africa is currently suffering the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 15,900 illnesses and at least 5,700 deaths so far. Four cases have been diagnosed in the United States.

The World Health Organization says the number of people infected with Ebola has passed 17,000, as Sierra Leone announced that its 10th doctor has been sickened.

Numbers released Tuesday by WHO include about 200 new cases since data was published Monday. More than 6,000 people have died.

The vast majority of the infected are in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Also Tuesday, Sierra Leonean Health Ministry spokesman Jonathan Abass Kamara said that Dr. Thomas Rogers has tested positive for the disease and was admitted a day earlier to the British-built treatment center in Kerry Town, near the capital. Rogers had been working at Connaught Hospital in Freetown.

He is being cared for at a special clinic reserved for infected health care workers that is staffed by British army medics.

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Online:  The hospital list: