Two humanitarian aid workers infected with the Ebola virus that has swept West Africa and killed more than 700 people are headed home to the United States, officials said Thursday.
A private jet equipped with a quarantine pod left Cartersville, Ga., Thursday afternoon headed for Liberia to evacuate Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, CNN reported.
Brantly and Writebol, both Americans working for the faith-base charity Samaritan’s Purse, are said to be in stable but grave condition.
The two volunteers came down with the deadly virus while caring for patients with Ebola at a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia.
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta revealed Thursday that it expects to receive one of the patients within the next several days.
“Physicians, nurses and staff are highly trained in the specific and unique protocols and procedures necessary to treat and care for this type of patient,” Emory said in a statement.
The specially built center at Emory is operated in conjunction with the nearby federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is one of only four such facilities in the country and is designed to treat serious infectious diseases.
“For this specially trained staff, these procedures are practiced on a regular basis throughout the year so we are fully prepared for this type of situation,” the university’s statement reads.
Since March, the Ebola outbreak has killed 729 West Africans, including 339 in Guinea, 223 in Sierra Leone, 156 in Liberia and one in Nigeria, health officials said.
In Liberia, 28 of 45 health workers have died after contracting Ebola, officials said.
There is no cure for Ebola and no licensed vaccine or drug to treat it.
The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, including urine, blood, sweat or saliva, experts said.
INCHRIST COMMUNICATIONS/REUTERSU.S. aid worker Nancy Writebol and her husband, David, are seen in this family photo.
The disease attacks the body’s cells, overwhelms the immune system and causes blood clots, hemorrhaging and organ failure.
Writebol, of Charlotte, N.C., has been given an experimental serum to treat the highly contagious virus.
“There was only enough for one person. Dr. Brantly asked that it be given to Nancy Writebol,” said Samaritan’s Purse president Franklin Graham, son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham.
Brantly, 33, a father of two from Forth Worth, Tex., received a life-saving blood transfusion from a 14-year-old Ebola survivor he had treated, Graham said.
Brantly’s wife, Amber, said she’s praying that her husband beats the disease.
This CDC photo shows the Ebola Virus under a microscope. Emory University in Atlanta says it will be receiving an American patient infected with the deadly disease.
