We can stop Ebola

A second American missionary
stricken with Ebola is expected to fly Tuesday
to the U.S. for treatment, following a
colleague who was admitted over the weekend
to Emory University Hospital's infectious
disease unit.
A Liberian official confirmed to the
Associated Press plans for Nancy Writebol to
depart with a medical evacuation team. The
official, Information Minister Lewis Brown,
said the evacuation flight was scheduled to
leave West Africa between 01:00 and 01:30
local time on Tuesday.
Writebol is in good spirits despite her
diagnosis, said the pastor of her hometown
church in Charlotte, North Carolina, who has
spoken with her husband, David.
"She is holding her own," the Reverend John
Munro said. Munro's Calvary Church is a
nondenominational evangelical congregation
that sponsors the Writebols as missionaries in
Liberia, one of the West African nations
grappling with the worst outbreak of Ebola
ever recorded there.
Writebol's mission team partner, Dr Kent
Brantly, was improving on Sunday after he was
admitted to Emory's quarantine unit a day
earlier, according to a statement from his
wife.
"Our family is rejoicing over Kent's safe
arrival, and we are confident that he is
receiving the very best care," Amber Brantly
said, adding that she was able to see her
husband on Sunday.
Brantly and Nancy Writebol served on the
same mission team treating Ebola victims when
they contracted the virus themselves. Brantly
was serving as a physician in the hospital
compound near Monrovia, Liberia, when he
became infected. They said Writebol worked as
a hygienist whose role included
decontaminating those entering or leaving the
Ebola treatment area at that hospital.
There is no cure for Ebola, which causes
haemorrhagic fever that kills at least 60% of
the people it infects in Africa. Ebola spreads
through close contact with bodily fluids and
blood, meaning it is not spread as easily as
airborne influenza or the common cold.
Africa's under-developed health care system
and inadequate infection controls make it
easier for the Ebola virus to spread and
harder to treat.
Any modern hospital using standard
infection-control measures should be able to
handle it, according to medical experts, and
Emory's infectious disease unit is one of about
four in the US that is specially equipped to
test and treat people exposed to the most
dangerous viruses.
Patients are quarantined, sealed off from
anyone who is not in protective gear. Lab tests
are conducted inside the unit, ensuring that
viruses don't leave the quarantined area.
Family members can see and communicate
with patients only through barriers.
Brantly arrived on Saturday under stringent
protocols, flying from West Africa to Dobbins
Air Reserve base outside Atlanta in a small
plane equipped to contain infectious diseases.
A small police escort followed his ambulance to
Emory, where he emerged dressed head to toe
in white protective clothing and walked into
the hospital on his own power.
A physician from Texas, Brantly is a
Samaritan's Purse missionary. The Writebols
are working through SIM USA. The two
Christian organizations have partnered to
provide health care in West Africa.
Munro said the Writebols are "quiet,
unassuming people" who "felt called by God"
to mission work overseas. They first went to
Africa in the late 1990s, he said, working at a
home for widows and orphans in Zambia.
"They take the Great Commission literally,"
Munro said, referring to the scriptural
instruction from Jesus Christ to "make
disciples of all nations".
Munro recalled speaking with the couple when
the Ebola outbreak began. "We weren't telling
them to come back; we were just willing to help
them come back," he said. "They said, 'The
work isn't finished, and it must continue.'"
David Writebol spoke with his home church
congregation last week through an Internet
audio connection, Munro said. Nancy Writebol
"couldn't join the call because of her
condition," but the pastor said David Writebol
told them his wife was able to walk some on
her own.
The outbreak comes as nearly 50 African
heads of state come to Washington, DC, for
the US-Africa Leaders Summit — billed as a
tool for African nations to integrate more
into the world economy and community. With
the outbreak, however, the presidents of
Liberia and Sierra Leone have scrapped their
plans to attend the three-day summit opening
Monday.
Meanwhile, some airlines that serve West
Africa have suspended flights, while
international groups, including the Peace
Corps, have evacuated some or all of their
representatives in the region.
In the US, public health officials continue to
emphasise that treating Brantly and Writebol
in the US poses no risks to the public here.
"The plain truth is that we can stop Ebola," Dr
Tom Frieden, director of the US Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention, said, speaking
on Sunday on ABC's "This Week. "We know how
to control it: hospital infection control and
stopping it at the source in Africa."