Ebola doctor 鈥榠mproving鈥 after arrival at US facility
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A US doctor infected with the Ebola virus “seems to be improving,” a health official said yesterday after the man was flown to the United States from Africa for treatment.
Kent Brantly, one of two American aid workers infected with the deadly virus as they helped battle an outbreak in West Africa, arrived at a US air base in Georgia on Saturday.
Clad in a white biosuit, Brantly was seen walking gingerly into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which has a cutting edge isolation unit used to treat victims of infectious diseases.
“It’s encouraging that he seems to be improving. That’s really important, and we’re hoping he’ll continue to improve,” said Tom Frieden, director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control.
“But Ebola is such a scary disease because it’s so deadly,” he added, speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation.
More than 700 people have died in West Africa during the current outbreak. Since the virus emerged in 1976 it has killed two-thirds of those infected.
“The plain fact is, we can stop it. We can stop it from spreading in hospitals and we can stop it in Africa,” Frieden said. “In fact, we have stopped every previous outbreak, and I’m confident we can stop this one.
“But it’s going to be hard because it’s spread through so many countries and there’s such a risk of further spread in Africa,” he said.
Brantly’s wife Amber asked for people to pray for her husband’s recovery and that of those stricken with the virus in Liberia. “I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the US. I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital,” she said.
Christian missionary worker Nancy Writebol is expected to be airlifted back to the US in the next few days, AFP reported.
Experts say Emory University Hospital is one of the safest places in the world to treat people with Ebola. There’s virtually no chance the virus can spread from the hospital’s super-secure isolation unit.
They also say medical workers risking their lives overseas deserve the best treatment they can get.
“I hope that our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the US for care,” Freiden said. His agency received “nasty e-mails” and at least 100 calls from people questioning why the sick aid workers should be let in to the country.
However, few of those nearest the hospital seemed concerned, The Associated Press reported.
“I just think it’s a blessing that we can help possibly make the infected person’s life a little more tolerable,” said Ashley Wheeler, who was shopping just down the street. “If I were that person I would want my country to help me the best way they could.”
Emory’s infectious diseases’ unit was created 12 years ago to handle doctors who get sick at the CDC. It is one of about four in the country equipped with everything necessary to test, treat and contain people exposed to dangerous viruses.
There is no cure for the virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever that kills as many as 60-80 percent of the people it infects in Africa. There are experimental treatments, but the missionary hospital had only enough for one person, and Brantly insisted Writebol receive it.
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