A second American citizen has now become infected with the deadly Ebola virus as the worst outbreak ever of the terrifying and grisly disease rages through four West African nations.
Nancy Writebol, an American working for a charity organization in Liberia has tested positive for the virus officials announced Sunday, July 27, 2014.
While her condition was not released. Writebol is undoubtedly fighting for her life against the virus, which kills 90 percent of those infected.
Contagion: Christian missionary Nancy Writebol (seen here with her husband David) has become the second U.S. citizen infected with deadly Ebola in the midst of the worst outbreak of the virus ever in Africa [Photo Credit: Facebook]
Outbreak:: Writebol and her husband are not healthcare personnel, but have spent the last 15 years working in disease and poverty-stricken third world countries [Photo Credit: Facebook]
So too is American doctor Kent Brantly, the 33-year-old medical director for charity group Samaritan’s Purse whose been working in Liberia since October.
Writebol had been working with Ebola victims in the Liberian capital of Monrovia for the groups Serving In Mission and Samaritan’s Purse when she became infected, NBC News reports.
Writebol and her husband David are not medical personnel, but rather Christian missionaries with 15 years experience serving disease and poverty-stricken third world nations.
Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, the couple raised two sons before moving overseas, first to Ecuador and Zambia before moving to Liberia.
Dr. Kent Brantly, meanwhile, was being treated in Monrovia over the weekend for the dreaded disease, said Melissa Strickland, a spokeswoman for Samaritan’s Purse.
‘We are hopeful, but he is certainly not out of the woods yet,’ she said.
Early treatment improves a patient’s chances of survival and Strickland said Brantly recognized his own symptoms and began receiving care immediately.
The highly contagious virus is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. The World Health Organization said the outbreak is the largest ever recorded, killing more than 670 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since it began earlier this year.
More than 1,000 others have been infected by the virus, which can go unnoticed for three weeks and kills 90 per cent of victims.
The outbreak started in Guinea in February and spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone in weeks.
Health workers are at serious risk of contracting the disease, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids.
Unprecedented: The outbreak has spread to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and has now killed a man in far more densely populated Nigeria. The outbreak is the deadliest ever of the terrifying disease as the death toll crept past 700 [Photo Credit: CDC.gov]
Deadly errors: Dr. Kent Brantly of Samaritan’s Purse relief organization is shown wearing protective clothing as he works with Ebola patients in Liberia. Brantly is also being treated after somehow becoming infected with the virus. While the protective suits keep infectious fluids out, relief workers do often become victims [Photo Credit: Reuters]
Another victim: Dr Kent Brantly, pictured with his wife and children who were with him in Africa until recently, but who officials don’t believe have the virus [Photo Credit: Thebrantlybunch.com]
Photos of Brantly working in Liberia show him in white coveralls made of a synthetic material that he wore for hours a day while treating Ebola patients.
There is no known cure for Ebola, which begins with symptoms including fever and sore throat and escalates to vomiting, diarrhea and internal and external bleeding.
The WHO says the disease is not contagious until a person begins to show symptoms. Brantly’s wife and children had been living with him in Liberia but flew home to the U.S. about a week ago, before the doctor started showing any signs of illness, Strickland said.
Stable: 33-year-old Brantly, left, was receiving intensive medical care in a Monrovia hospital and was in stable condition, according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Melissa Strickland [Photo Credit: Thebrantlybunch.com]
‘They have absolutely shown no symptoms,’ she said.
A woman who identified herself as Brantly’s mother said the family was declining immediate comment when reached by phone in Indiana late Saturday, July 26, 2014.
Brantly is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine and went to Liberia as part of a two-year fellowship with Samaritan’s Purse, shortly after he completed his residency in family medicine at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.
‘The caliber of a person like that who says, `I’m going Africa, I’m going to where people need me the most,’ it really speaks to you,’ Robert Earley, president and CEO of JPS Health Network, said Sunday. ‘It speaks to your heart.’
Dr. Samuel Brisbane on Sunday became the first Liberian doctor to die in an outbreak the World Health Organization says. A Ugandan doctor working in the country died earlier this month.
Brisbane, who once served as a medical adviser to former Liberian President Charles Taylor, was working as a consultant with the internal medicine unit at the country’s largest hospital, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia.
After falling ill with Ebola, he was taken to a treatment center on the outskirts of the capital, where he died, said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister.
As the death toll continues to rise in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, a fourth African country was alerted over the weekend to their own case of Ebola: the far more densely populated nation of Nigeria.
Terrifying: A Liberian infected with Ebola terrified the highly-populated Nigerian capital of Lagos when he managed to fly there before becoming seriously ill by the time they landed and dying in the city, becoming the first Ebola death in Nigeria [Photo Credit: AP]
EBOLA: DEADLY, CONTAGIOUS AND UNCURABLE – COULD IT LEAVE AFRICA?
The current outbreak of Ebola has spread to at least four countries in West Africa since the start of the year.
So far, it has claimed 672 victims, and infected 1,093.
Countries affected include Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.
The disease spreads through contact with blood, body fluids or contact with tissue from infected people or animals.
It has only a 10 percent survival rate.
Civil servant Patrick Sawyer collapsed at Lagos airport in Nigeria on July 20 after flying in from Liberia, where he had attended the funeral of his sister, who had also succumbed to the disease.
His plane also landed in Togo on its way to Nigeria, prompting fears that the virus may have also reached a fifth country.
Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, said: ‘If the disease gets going in Nigeria it would be cause for concern.
‘Nigeria has close links with the UK and many other countries.’
Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are now screening air passengers – but doctors say this may not be effective because Ebola has an incubation period of two to 21 days and cannot be diagnosed on the spot.
Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and damage to the nervous system. There is no vaccine or cure. It is spread by contact with infected blood or other bodily fluids.
All outbreaks since 1976 when Ebola was first identified have been in Africa, with the previous highest death toll being 280.
Nigerian health authorities raced to stop the spread of Ebola on Saturday after a man sick with one of the world’s deadliest diseases brought it by plane to Lagos, Africa’s largest city with 21 million people.
The fact that the traveler from Liberia could board an international flight also raised new fears that other passengers could take the disease beyond Africa due to weak inspection of passengers and the fact Ebola’s symptoms are similar to other diseases.
Nigerian officials say a Liberian man died of Ebola in a Lagos hospital Friday after arriving in the country on Tuesday. It is the first case of Ebola to be confirmed in Nigeria since the current outbreak began in West Africa earlier this year.
Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said all ports of entry in the country are now on ‘red alert’ and health officials are investigating all people who had contact with the deceased.
