US AID Workers with Ebola Improved after receiving Untested Serum

Kent Brantly

Washington (Alliance News) - An American doctor suffering from Ebola was improving at an Atlanta hospital, officials said, as reports emerged Monday that he had received an experimental serum while still in Africa and near death.

The doctor, Kent Brantly, received a dose of an experimental serum before he left Liberia on Saturday, the Christian charity he was working for said in a statement.

Another American aid worker, Nancy Writebol, who also fell ill in Liberia after exposure to the Ebola virus, also received the serum, Samaritan's Purse said. Her condition has improved and she is due to be flown to the US on Tuesday.
The serum is a "cocktail of antibodies that have the capability of blocking the virus," said Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview with the Washington Post.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) along with the US State Department, the US National Institute of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) coordinated the delivery of the serum that Brantly and Writebol received, Samaritan's Purse said.

Brantly also received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who had survived Ebola under his care, said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse.

"The young boy and his family wanted to be able to help the doctor that saved his life," Graham said.

Thomas Frieden, the director of the CDC, said Sunday the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa was out of control, but he also said he was confident that it could be stopped.

Concerns were raised in New York City that the Ebola virus had spread there after news reports said a man who checked in to a hospital with a fever was being tested for the infection.

Officials at Mount Sinai Hospital said the man had recently returned from West Africa.

The patient was isolated right away, said Jeremy Boal, chief medical officer. Tests were being conducted on samples taken from the patient, but it will take up to two days for the CDC to release results, Boal said at a news conference, adding "Odds are this is not Ebola."

The World Bank Group pledged up to 200 million dollars in emergency funding to help Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone contain the spread of Ebola infections, the organization announced Monday.

The money is meant to help those countries cope with the economic impact of the crisis and improve public health systems throughout West Africa, the World Bank said in a statement.

In Nigeria health officials said Monday the first citizen has contracted the Ebola virus, while two patients quarantined in the country have developed symptoms.

The infected patient is a doctor who treated Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian government consultant who died of Ebola last week in a Lagos hospital, said Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.

Last week, Nigeria quarantined two further people suspected of being infected with the virus and placed 70 others under surveillance.

Eight out of the 70 people under surveillance have now been also isolated, according to Chukwu.

On Saturday, the National Centre for Disease Control announced the two patients that had initially been isolated had tested negative.

The WHO is warning of possibly "catastrophic" consequences from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, calling the outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and now Nigeria the deadliest ever.

As of July 31, the WHO had recorded 1,323 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in West Africa. Of these, 729 people have died.

Among the fatalities have been two doctors treating infected patients, one in Sierra Leone, the other in Liberia.

More than 60 healthcare workers have also lost their lives, according to the WHO.

The outbreak is caused by the most lethal strain in the family of Ebola viruses.

Ebola causes massive haemorrhages and has a fatality rate of 90%. It is transmitted through blood and other body fluids.

Source: London South East