According to officials, Nancy Writebol, the second American to be infected with the Ebola virus in West Africa, has arrived in the US and will be taken to Emory Hospital in Atlanta to receive treatment. She will join Dr. Kent Brantly, while doctors in New York treat a suspected Ebola patient at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Writebol was airlifted from Liberia around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning and arrived at Maine's Bangor International Airport at 8:09 a.m. She cleared customs and was immediately taken to Emory Hospital in Atlanta a half hour later where she will be put in a special isolation unit created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emory Hospital has one of four units in the US that is equipped to test and treat for serious infectious diseases such as Ebola.
The first American brought to Emory Hospital, Dr. Kent Brantly, is said to be in good spirits after his treatment at in the isolation unit. Brantly received two doses of experimental serum - one in Africa and one in Atlanta - and doctors have not released any details about the highly experimental drug that is believed to have saved the lives of the two American patients. Doctors said Brantly was clinically stable on Monday, showing improvement with the Ebola symptoms.
In addition to Brantly and Writebol, in the last week two people in New York City were suspected of being infected with Ebola. The first game last Wednesday after a person flying from West Africa was screened at customs at JFK International Airport and was found to have symptoms of the virus. After being checked out and treated at Bellevue Hospital, the symptoms disappeared within a day and the patient was medically cleared. But on Monday, a man visited the emergency room at Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and was found to have a high fever and gastrointestinal issues (both symptoms of the virus) following a recent trip to West Africa.
However, later in the afternoon, it was reported that the patient was unlikely to have Ebola.
"After consultation with CDC and Mount Sinai, the [NYC] Health Department has concluded that the patient is unlikely to have Ebola. Specimens are being tested for common causes of illness and to definitively exclude Ebola," according to a department spokesperson in this ABC News article.
"Many things cause fever and gastrointestinal symptoms," said Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News chief health and medical editor. "The steps they are taking are wise given the travel history, but nothing about the symptoms is specific to Ebola."
There is much hysteria surrounding the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but medically prepared countries should have little to worry about, as passengers on flights from West Africa or those who have traveled to the region are being screened at airports for the virus. CDC director Tom Frieden says the United States is more than capable of containing Ebola if cases were to appear on our soil.
