Nancy Writebol (center) is one of two Americans brought back to America after being infected with Ebola while in Liberia
Video And Pics After The Jump
Two U.S. aid workers who were infected with Ebola are being brought to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital for treatment. One will arrive Saturday, August 2. The second patient is expected back in the country within a few days.
Dr. Kent Brantly is on his way to Atlanta to be treated for Ebola
Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly were with a missionary group providing care for Ebola victims at a Liberian hospital when they were infected.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are experiencing the worst Ebola outbreak in history. 729 people in the West African countries have died this year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned Americans to avoid nonessential travel to the region.
“This is a tragic, painful, dreadful, merciless virus. It’s the largest, most complex outbreak that we know of in history,” said CDC director Tom Frieden in a news briefing Thursday.
Writebol and Brantly will be the first people brought into the U.S. with the disease, but Frieden, told CNN there is no need for panic.
"Ebola is a virus that can be stopped," he said. "It can be stopped in the community by control measures. And it can be prevented from spread in hospitals by meticulous infection control. That means you really have to follow every one of the procedures carefully. I think we fear it because it's so unfamiliar. But we shouldn't let that unfamiliarity trump our reason about the possibility, the likelihood, availability of effective infection control in hospitals across the U.S. Ebola's a huge risk in Africa. It's not going to be a huge risk in the U.S."
How contagious is Ebola and how does it spread?
String-like Ebola virus peeling off an infected cell
Key facts
- Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
- EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
- EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
- The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
- Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.
- Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.
Do you think it was the right decision to bring the American Ebola patients to the U.S. for treatment?
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks with CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden about the Ebola outbreak and patients coming to U.S.
Experimental serum used on U.S. Ebola patient
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta offers the first look inside Emory Hospital's isolation ward where Ebola patients will be treated
Sources: CNN, Associated Press, World Health Organization
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