US Ebola patient ‘seems to be improving’ – CDC chief
He is one of two Americans infected by the deadly viral disease fever while battling effects of a major outbreak in West Africa.
Kent Brantly is being treated in an isolation unit at Emory University hospital in Atlanta.
“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, the 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
A report monitored on the Cable News Network, CNN, yesterday, quoted Emory saying it will treat Brantly, 33, and fellow missionary, Nancy Writebol, in an isolation unit.
The plane equipped with an isolation unit can only transport one patient at a time. It will now pick up Writebol in Liberia and bring her to Georgia early next week, said Todd Shearer, spokesman for Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse, with which both Americans were affiliated.
Brantly’s wife, parents and sister cried when they saw him on CNN walking from the ambulance into the hospital, another representative of Samaritan’s Purse said on condition of anonymity. His wife, Amber, later said she was relieved that her husband was back in the United States.
“I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S.,” she said in statement. “I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital.”
Brantly’s wife visited with him from behind a glass wall for about 45 minutes, the Samaritan’s Purse representative said. Kent Brantly was described as “in great spirits and so grateful.”
Brantly, who has ties to Texas and Indiana, and Writebol, of North Carolina, became sick while caring for Ebola patients in Liberia, one of three West African nations hit by an outbreak.
This will be the first human Ebola test for a U.S. medical facility. The patients will be treated at an isolated unit where precautions are in place to keep such deadly diseases from spreading, unit supervisor Dr. Bruce Ribner said.
Everything that comes in and out of the unit will be controlled, Ribner said, and it will have windows and an intercom for staff to interact with patients without being in the room.
Ebola is not airborne or waterborne, and spreads through contact with organs and bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and other secretions of infected people.
There is no FDA-approved treatment for Ebola, and Emory will use what Ribner calls “supportive care.” That means carefully tracking a patient’s symptoms, vital signs and organ function and taking measures, such as blood transfusions and dialysis, to keep patients stable.
“We just have to keep the patient alive long enough in order for the body to control this infection,” Ribner said.
Writebol was given an experimental serum last week, Samaritan’s Purse said, though its purpose and effects weren’t immediately publicised.
The National Institute of Health plans to begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine in people as early as September. Tests on primates have been successful. So far, the outbreak is confined to West Africa, and although infections are dropping in Guinea, they are on the rise in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Kent Brantly is being treated in an isolation unit at Emory University hospital in Atlanta.
Kent Brantly,
“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
A report monitored on the Cable News Network, CNN, yesterday, quoted Emory saying it will treat Brantly, 33, and fellow missionary, Nancy Writebol, in an isolation unit.
The plane equipped with an isolation unit can only transport one patient at a time. It will now pick up Writebol in Liberia and bring her to Georgia early next week, said Todd Shearer, spokesman for Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse, with which both Americans were affiliated.
Brantly’s wife, parents and sister cried when they saw him on CNN walking from the ambulance into the hospital, another representative of Samaritan’s Purse said on condition of anonymity. His wife, Amber, later said she was relieved that her husband was back in the United States.
“I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S.,” she said in statement. “I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital.”
Brantly’s wife visited with him from behind a glass wall for about 45 minutes, the Samaritan’s Purse representative said. Kent Brantly was described as “in great spirits and so grateful.”
Brantly, who has ties to Texas and Indiana, and Writebol, of North Carolina, became sick while caring for Ebola patients in Liberia, one of three West African nations hit by an outbreak.
This will be the first human Ebola test for a U.S. medical facility. The patients will be treated at an isolated unit where precautions are in place to keep such deadly diseases from spreading, unit supervisor Dr. Bruce Ribner said.
Everything that comes in and out of the unit will be controlled, Ribner said, and it will have windows and an intercom for staff to interact with patients without being in the room.
Ebola is not airborne or waterborne, and spreads through contact with organs and bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and other secretions of infected people.
There is no FDA-approved treatment for Ebola, and Emory will use what Ribner calls “supportive care.” That means carefully tracking a patient’s symptoms, vital signs and organ function and taking measures, such as blood transfusions and dialysis, to keep patients stable.
“We just have to keep the patient alive long enough in order for the body to control this infection,” Ribner said.
Writebol was given an experimental serum last week, Samaritan’s Purse said, though its purpose and effects weren’t immediately publicised.
The National Institute of Health plans to begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine in people as early as September. Tests on primates have been successful. So far, the outbreak is confined to West Africa, and although infections are dropping in Guinea, they are on the rise in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
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