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American Ebola patient Dr. Kent Brantly is now safely inside an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital.
His wife, Amber Brantly, was able to visit him at the hospital Saturday night. According to ABC News, a glass window separated them as they communicated by phone. Witnesses told Channel 2 Action News Amber Brantly had a big smile on her face when she came out............continue after the cut to watch video.
watch video HERE
On Saturday, Amber Brantly released a statement that said, “It was a relief to welcome Kent home today. I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S. I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital. Please continue praying for Kent and Nancy--and please continue praying for the people of Liberia and those who continue to serve them there."
Brantly was transported to the U.S. by a jet ambulance operated by Phoenix Air Group, Inc. The plane touched down at Dobbins Air Reserve Base on Saturday just after 11 a.m. Brantly was then transported by ambulance to Emory University Hospitalwhere he walked inside the doors wearing a protective suit. Brantly was the first Ebola patient to set foot on U.S. soil.
The focus now shifts to American aide worker Nancy Writebol, the second Ebola patient waiting to be transferred. Writebol is still in West Africa, where officials say she and Brantly contracted the virus. Both patients were working with the faith-based charity Samaritan’s Purse at the time.
Samaritan’s Purse released a statement saying they are glad Brantly is safely back in the United States and expect Writebol to arrive “within the next few days.” A senior U.S. government official told ABC News Writebol will arrive in the U.S. on Tuesday. They say the same plane used to transport Brantly will be used for Writebol. The plane is expected to take off from an airport in Cartersville on Sunday.
Writebol will also be transferred to Emory once she arrives. The FBI released a statement to Channel 2's Mark Winne saying they are helping to provide security for the arrival and transfer of the patients.
"The FBI, in working with officials at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Health and Human Services (HHS), provided security in conjunction with today's first arrival and transport of an Ebola patient scheduled for treatment at Atlanta. The FBI will provide similar security as an extra layer of protection to the public upon the arrival in the next few days of an additional Ebola patient. The FBI is coordinating with Emory University's Police Department with regard to any additional security concerns or needs," said the statement.
The hospital emphasizes that it has taken every precaution to keep the public and their staff safe. In a news conference Friday, Dr. Bruce Ribner, an Emory professor in the Infectious Disease Division, said, “(we) do not believe any healthcare worker, any other patient, or any visitor is at risk for infection.”
Brantly and Writebol will be kept isolated in the special containment units and will be treated by highly trained personnel. Emory says it is talking with the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC about possible experimental treatments.
The hospital told Channel 2’s Dave Huddleston that only a limited number of hospital employees will be near the Ebola patients.
“The staff that will be caring for him are a group of infectious disease experts,” said Dr. Jay Varkay, a member of the infectious disease team that will be treating Brantly and Writebol.
Varkay said the units will be staffed 24-7 with intensive care unit nurses and a physician. He says they can do lab tests right there in the area.
Ribner said the group of experts working with the Ebola patients accepted the call to help without hesitation. Ribner says to ICU nurses even cancelled their planned vacations to look after the patients.
ABC News Medical Director Richard Besser says, from what he knows, the hospital is well equipped to handle an Ebola patient.
"Having a place like Emory where people are trained, they exercise on this, they know what they're doing, is exactly where you want a patient like this to come, because they will do everything to reduce that risk," Besser told Huddleston.
Samaritan’s Purse has also evacuated 60 nonessential personnel from Liberia. The organization says the Samaritan’s Purse and SIM staff and dependents are all healthy and expected to be back in the United States by the end of the weekend.
Doctors say the general public should not be concerned because Ebola can only by transmitted through contact with bodily fluids. Doctors say early symptoms of Ebola include a sudden fever, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat. Those symptoms can appear anywhere from days to weeks after infection. The virus is confirmed through lab testing.
Stay with Channel 2 Action News and wsbtv.com as this story continues to develop.
Patients roles in Liberia
Samaritan's Purse says Brantly and Writebol were both working for the Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia when they tested positive for Ebola.
The organization said Brantly was serving as medical director for the center. Brantly, a family practice physician, was serving in Liberia through the organization's post-residency program before joining the medical team responding to the Ebola crisis.
Brantly is married with two kids. His wife and children had been living with him in Liberia, but flew home to the U.S. before he started showing any signs of illness.
The organization says Writebol was working with SIM in Liberia, which manages the ELWA Hospital. She had been working as a hygienist who decontaminated people entering and leaving the isolation ward at the hospital.
Writebol is also married with two children.
Patients gravely ill
Family members for the two Ebola victims say their loves one are gravely ill and remain positive that they will make a full recovery.
"I remain hopeful and believing that Kent will be healed from this dreadful disease," Brantly's wife, Amber, said in a statement released by Samaritan's Purse. She and the couple's two young children left Liberia for Texas before her husband was infected, and she said they are fine.
"She's tired and she's wearied and a bit sad as well. I know it's been hard because she never imagined that this would be something that she would have to deal with,” Nancy's son Jeremy Writebol said.
An experimental serum for treating Ebola arrived in Liberia, and Brantly requested it be given to Writebol when he learned there was only enough for one, according to a news release from Samaritan’s Purse.
“Dr. Brantly asked that it be given to Nancy Writebol,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “However, Dr. Brantly received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who has survived Ebola because of Dr. Brantly’s care. The young boy and his family wanted to be able to help the doctor that saved his life.”
U.S. issues travel warning
Last week, U.S. health officials warned Americans not to travel to the three West African countries hit by an outbreak of Ebola.
The travel advisory applies to nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the deadly disease has killed more than 700 people this year.
"The bottom line is Ebola is worsening in West Africa," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who announced the travel warning.
He called Ebola "a tragic, dreadful and merciless virus."
The purpose of the travel warning is to not only protect U.S. travelers, but limit their use of overburdened clinics and hospitals for injuries or other illnesses, he said.
For more than a month, the CDC has advised travelers to simply take precautions when in the outbreak region. The alert that was issued on Thursday is the highest-level. The World Health Organization, however, has not issued a similar travel warning for the West Africa region. The last time the CDC issued a high-level warning was in 2003 because of a SARS outbreak in Asia.
More about the outbreak
The current outbreak is the largest since the disease first emerged in Africa nearly 40 years ago. The virus is contagious and is spread by direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from a sick person. Ebola can't be spread like the flu through casual contact or breathing in the same air.
Experts estimate that in this outbreak, about 60 percent of the people who have gotten sick with Ebola have died — a frightening fatality rate that is among the highest of any disease. There is no vaccine and no specific treatment for it.
The CDC has about two dozen staffers in West Africa to help try to control the outbreak. Frieden said the CDC will send 50 more in the next month. CDC workers in Africa are also helping screen passengers at airports, he said.
The CDC has said that the risk of a traveler bringing the Ebola virus to the United States remains small. Last week, the agency sent a health alert to U.S. doctors, updating them about the outbreak. The alert stressed they should ask about foreign travel in patients who come down with Ebola-like symptoms, including fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhea.
Even if a traveler infected with Ebola came to the U.S., the risk of an outbreak is considered very low, Frieden said. Patients are contagious only when they show symptoms and U.S. hospitals are well equipped to isolate cases and control spread of the virus.
Frieden also noted that relatively few people travel from West Africa to the United States. He said about 10,000 travelers from those countries come to the United States in an average three- or four-month period, and most do not arrive on direct flights.
The CDC has staff at 20 U.S. airports and border crossings. They evaluate any travelers with signs of dangerous infectious diseases, and isolate them when necessary. The agency is prepared to increase that staffing if needed, he said.
Frieden said a widespread Ebola outbreak in the United States "is not in the cards."
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