American Dr. Infected with Ebola Arrives in Atlanta

02 Aug, 2014

An American aid worker infected with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia arrived in the United States from West Africa on Saturday and was able to walk from an ambulance into an Atlanta hospital for treatment in a special isolation unit.

A chartered medical aircraft carrying Dr. Kent Brantly touched down at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia, shortly before noon. Brantly was driven by ambulance, with police escort, to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment in a specially equipped room.

Television news footage showed the ambulance stop outside the hospital, and three people in white biohazard suits stepped gingerly out of the vehicle.

Two of them walked into the building, one seeming to lean on the other for support. A hospital spokesman confirmed that Brantly walked into the building under his own power.

Dr. Jay Varkey, an infectious disease specialist at Emory, said he could not comment on a treatment plan until Brantly had been evaluated. Since there is no known cure, standard procedures, according to the World Health Organization, are to provide hydration with solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids.

Brantly works for the North Carolina-based Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse. A second infected member of the group, missionary Nancy Writebol, will be brought to the United States on a later flight, as the medical aircraft is equipped to carry only one patient at a time.

Brantly and Writebol were helping respond to the worst West African Ebola outbreak on record when they contracted the disease. Since February, more than 700 people in the region have died from the infection.

“We thank God that they are alive and now have access to the best care in the world,” Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement.

Despite concern among some in the United States over bringing Ebola patients to the country, health officials have said there is no risk to the public.

The facility at Emory, set up with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is one of only four in the country with the facilities to deal with such cases. It is separate from other patient areas, providing a high level of clinical isolation.

Reuters 

Image SAMARITAN’S PURSE

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