Two With Ebola Virus Disease to Get Treatment in Atlanta: Over 700 Dead Since March as Patients Enter US
An American man and woman that have been infected with the Ebola virus in West Africa are set to return home to the U.S. to receive treatment in Atlanta, according to a Washington Post report.
Kent Brantly, a doctor from Fort Worth, Texas and Nancy Writebol, a missionary from Charlotte, North Carolina, will be medically evacuated this weekend, and both are said to be in serious condition. They were previously hospitalized in the Liberian capital of Monrovia.
The pair will be flown in what is essentially an air ambulance from Africa to Dobbins Air Force Base in suburban Atlanta, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John F. Kirby said. The stricken will be taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which is one of four hospitals in the U.S. equipped to deal with such outbreaks, CNN reported.
"The patients will be escorted throughout by specially and frequently trained teams that have sufficient resources to transport the patients so that there is no break in their medical care or exposure to others," Kirby said.
This outbreak of Ebola is the worst on records, as more than 700 people have died since it began in March in Guinea. Since that time, it has spread to other West African countries.
The decision to bring home the two sick Americans was met with some backlash on domestic shores, as people are afraid of the disease taking hold in the U.S.
Donald Trump tweeted, "Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S. Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!"
While the virus is not as contagious as some may think, it has killed about 60 percent of the people that have been infected, and no cure has been found, according to the World Health Organization.
U.S. officials attempted to assuage homeland fears by saying that the disease isn't contagious until the infected person is showing symptoms, and it's only communicable through contact with bodily fluids. Ebola cannot be contracted from the air, like the flu.
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