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Husband Of Ebola Patient Leaves Quarantine, Visits Wife In Isolation Ward

Husband Of Ebola Patient Leaves Quarantine, Visits Wife In Isolation Ward

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

The husband of an American missionary diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus has ended his quarantine in North Carolina and visited his wife Sunday at an isolation room at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, a Christian missionary group announced Monday.

David Writebol, who was quarantined as a precautionary measure after returning from Liberia, said his wife Nancy was continuing to improve. Nancy Writebol, 59, and a missionary doctor, Ken Brantly, 33, were flown from Liberia earlier this month for treatment at Emory’s special containment unit, one of just four in the country.

“I have had the great joy to be able to look through the isolation room glass and see my beautiful wife again,” David Writebol said in a statement Monday. “We both placed our hands on opposite sides of the glass, moved with tears to look at each other again.”

Writebol has not had contact with his wife since she was diagnosed with Ebola in Liberia on July 26. Nancy Writebol, wearing a full-body white protective suit, was flown to Atlanta on a specially-outfitted private plane on Aug. 5.

David Writebol said he had no symptoms of Ebola and was cleared by doctors to leave quarantine Sunday to visit his wife.

“She was standing with her radiant smile, happy beyond words,” David Writebol said of Sunday’s meeting. “She is continuing to slowly gain strength, eager for the day when the barriers separating us are set aside, and we can simply hold each other.”

He added: “We prayed together over the intercom.”

“My family and I look forward to her speedy restoration, and we give thanks for continued prayers on her behalf,” Writebol said.

Ebola has infected at least 2,100 people and killed 1,145 in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization.

Two other doctors with the Charlotte-based missionary group SIM also were placed in precautionary quarantine on SIM’s campus in Charlotte, N.C., on Aug. 10. The doctors, whose names have not been released, have not been diagnosed with Ebola.

Palmer Holt, a spokesman for SIM, declined to say Monday whether the two doctors were still in quarantine.

Both Nancy Writebol and Brantly have been treated with the experimental drug Zmapp, which contains a mixture of antibodies. There is no effective vaccine for Ebola, but patients are given fluids and other treatments in hopes of stabilizing them long enough for their immune systems to eventually fight off the virus.

In the worst Ebola outbreaks in Africa since the virus first appeared in 1976, up to 90 percent of those diagnosed with Ebola have died, according to WHO. The virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids.

On Friday, Brantly released a statement from his isolation room at the Atlanta hospital, saying his condition continued to improve.

“I am growing stronger every day,” Brantly said.

Brantly said he traveled to Liberia not to fight Ebola but to treat patients at a SIM-run missionary hospital in Monrovia on behalf of a North-Carolina based Christian charity, Samaritan’s Purse. But as Ebola swept through West Africa, he began treating Ebola patients, he said.

“I witnessed the horror first-hand, and I can still remember every face and name,” he said.

He added: “As you continue to pray for Nancy and me, yes, please pray for our recovery. More importantly, pray that we would be faithful to God’s call on our lives in these new circumstances.”

AFP Photo/Florian Plaucheur

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2nd American Ebola Patient Arrives In Georgia

2nd American Ebola Patient Arrives In Georgia

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times

A second American aid worker with the Ebola virus was back in the United States on Tuesday after a medical air ambulance flew her from the West African nation of Liberia to Georgia, where she will join a colleague receiving treatment for the often lethal illness.

The plane carrying Nancy Writebol landed at Dobbins Air Reserve Base outside Atlanta and was met by a specially equipped ambulance for the drive to Emory University Hospital. It was the same drill used to transport Dr. Kent Brantly, who arrived at Emory on Saturday morning.

Both of the aid workers fell ill in Liberia last week after working with others stricken in an Ebola outbreak that has claimed hundreds of lives in four African nations.

No Americans have been diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, but doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City were awaiting results of tests on a man who arrived there Monday showing symptoms common to the disease, including a high fever and gastrointestinal problems. He had arrived in the past month from West Africa, officials at Mount Sinai said.

As a precaution, the man is in isolation until the test results are known, officials said.

There is no known cure for Ebola, but Brantly and Writebol both have received an experimental serum.

AFP Photo/Jessica Mcgowan

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American Missionary Battling Ebola To Arrive In United States On Tuesday

American Missionary Battling Ebola To Arrive In United States On Tuesday

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK — As a deadly Ebola virus outbreak produced more victims in West Africa, an American missionary stricken with the disease was expected to arrive in the United States on Tuesday to join a U.S. doctor receiving treatment at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

The air ambulance that brought Dr. Kent Brantly to Atlanta on Saturday morning was sent back to Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, to pick up Nancy Writebol, said a statement from SIM USA, a Christian organization with which Writebol serves.

Bruce Johnson, the organization’s president, said Writebol’s husband, David, had told him that “her appetite has improved, and she requested one of her favorite dishes– Liberian potato soup — and coffee.”

“We are so grateful and encouraged to hear that Nancy’s condition remains stable and that she will be with us soon,” said Johnson.

Like Brantly, Writebol became infected with Ebola while volunteering in Liberia to treat others who fell ill during an outbreak that has now hit four countries: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.

There is no cure for the disease, which is spread through bodily fluids and which is not contagious until a person becomes symptomatic following an incubation period. But Emory doctors say victims have a far better chance of survival if they have top-notch “supportive care” to keep their vital organs strong as the body fights the virus.

That level of care, virtually absent in Liberia and most of West Africa, will be provided at Emory in a special isolation ward designed in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to treat people with contagious and highly dangerous diseases.

The jet that will carry Writebol to Atlanta landed in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, on Monday night, The Associated Press reported. It was to take off with Writebol early Tuesday.

In Nigeria, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu confirmed that nation’s first home-grown case of Ebola on Monday. Chukwu said a doctor who had treated an Ebola victim who flew into Lagos, Nigeria from Liberia on July 20 now has the disease.

The doctor treated Patrick Sawyer, 40, who collapsed in Lagos’ airport after getting off his flight. Sawyer died five days later in a Nigerian hospital. At least eight other Nigerians remain hospitalized and quarantine while they are tested for the virus.

Samaritan’s Purse, the aid agency Brantly works for, said he and Writebol both received “a dose of an experimental serum” after falling ill in Liberia last week. Brantly also received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who survived Ebola while under Brantly’s care, Samaritan’s Purse said.

Samaritan’s Purse did not say what was in the serum.

AFP Photo/Seyllou

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Americans With Ebola To Be Sent To United States For Treatment By End Of Weekend

Americans With Ebola To Be Sent To United States For Treatment By End Of Weekend

By Monte Morin And Christine Mai-Duc, Los Angeles Times

ATLANTA — The medical evacuation from Liberia to Atlanta of two American citizens infected with the deadly Ebola virus will occur by the end of the weekend, according to the Christian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse.

“Dr. Kent Brantly, a doctor working for Samaritan’s Purse, and Nancy Writebol, a missionary with SIM, are currently in serious condition. The two Americans who contracted Ebola in Liberia remain in the country today but medical evacuation efforts are underway and should be completed by early next week,” read a prepared statement Friday from Samaritan’s Purse.

Emory University Hospital in Atlanta confirmed Thursday that there were plans to transfer “a patient” with Ebola virus to its special containment unit within several days. The isolation units were built in cooperation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The containment unit, which is one of only four of its kind in the nation, isolates infected patients from other areas of the hospital.

There is no vaccine or specific treatment for Ebola, which causes fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and massive internal bleeding, and has a fatality rate of 60 to 90 percent. It is spread through direct contact with the blood, organs, or other secretions of infected people.

People who are infected with this hemorrhagic virus experience sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, and headaches, along with vomiting and diarrhea. The disease can also cause kidney and liver failure, as well as internal bleeding.

A hospital spokeswoman on Friday declined to answer questions on the impending arrival and referred reporters to an earlier statement.

Samaritan’s Purse said that other, non-infected workers are already in the process of departing West Africa.

“Evacuation of 60 nonessential Samaritan’s Purse and SIM staff and dependents in Liberia has already begun,” the statement said. “They are all healthy, and we expect them to return to the United States by the end of the weekend. We ask for continued prayer for the evacuation process and the health of Kent Brantly, Nancy Writebol, the medical staff treating them and for all those who are affected by Ebola.”

On Thursday, the CDC issued a statement warning against travel to the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

“We do not have effective treatment or vaccine for Ebola,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. “There is no proven treatment. There is no proven vaccine. There is not likely to be one for at least a year, even in the best case scenario. We are not going to treat or vaccinate our way out of these outbreaks.

“We are going to use the traditional means that work of case identification, isolation, contact tracing, health communication, good meticulous management. That’s what has stopped every Ebola outbreak that’s ever happened before. That’s what will stop this Ebola outbreak.”

Writebol has reportedly received an “experimental serum” of which there was only enough for one person, while Brantly reportedly received a “unit of blood” from a 14-year-old boy who had survived the disease, whose family had wanted to thank the doctor for saving their son’s life.

Frieden said he could not comment on those reported medical interventions Thursday.

“In terms of experimental treatment, I don’t know any details of what may have been given,” Frieden said. “I will say that we have reviewed the evidence of the treatments out there and don’t find any treatment that’s had proven effectiveness against Ebola disease.”

AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso

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