Ebola Infected Doctor Lands in US; Now in Atlanta Hospital

Dan Wooding : Aug 4, 2014
Assist News Service

"I hope our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the US for care." -Dr. Tom Frieden, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(Atlanta, GA)—Dr. Kent Brantly, medical director for the Samaritan’s Purse care center serving the Liberian capital of Monrovia arrived in a specially equipped private plane at a military base before being whisked away to Emory University Hospital. (Photo via ANS/BBC)

Fellow infected US aid worker Nancy Writebol, part of the joint Serving In Mission/Samaritan’s Purse team, who is currently undergoing intensive treatment at an isolation center at ELWA Hospital, is expected to follow shortly.

According to the BBC, Ebola has claimed 728 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone this year, killing up to 90% of sufferers.

The virus spreads through human contact with a sufferer's bodily fluids.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external hemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

"The US health authorities have warned against travelling to the African states affected and 50 extra American specialists are being sent to affected areas," said the BBC.

The plane carrying Dr. Brantly was outfitted with a special portable tent designed for transporting patients with highly infectious diseases.
After it touched down at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, the patient was collected by an ambulance which drove him to Emory, 15 miles away.

At the hospital a person in protective clothing could be seen climbing down from the back of the ambulance and a second person in protective clothing appeared to take his gloved hands and guide him toward a building, the Associated Press report.

US officials say they are confident the patients can be treated without putting the public in any danger.

The specialized unit was opened 12 years ago to care for federal health workers exposed to some of the world's most dangerous germs. (Photo via ANS/Reuters)

While it has an isolation unit, health experts say it is not needed for treating a patient with Ebola, as the virus does not spread through the air.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is unaware of any Ebola patient ever being treated in the US before.

Dr. Brantly's employer, the aid group Samaritan's Purse, said in a statement that it was evacuating 60 non-essential staff who were healthy back to the US.

An earlier statement said that Dr. Brantly had been offered experimental serum—using blood from a child whose life he saved—but he had insisted that Ms. Writebol should receive it instead.

Amber Brantly, his wife, said in a statement she remained "hopeful and believing that Kent" would be "healed from this dreadful disease."

"There is a little bit of worry," Jenny Kendrix, 46, told Reuters news agency when asked about having the Ebola virus patient brought to the same hospital where her husband was being treated for cancer. "There is worry about it getting out."

But Ernie Surunis, 52, at the hospital for a pharmacy conference, said he was not bothered at all.

"This is a good hospital," he said. "I'm glad [the patients] are coming. We can't leave them [in Africa] to die. They went over to help other people."

"The National Institutes of Health in the US has said it will begin testing a possible Ebola vaccine in September," added the BBC.