Before relocating his family from Texas to West Africa last year to work in a clinic trying to help contain the Ebola virus epidemic – where he inevitably caught the incurable and highly-deadly disease – Dr. Kent Brantly gave a sermon in his hometown explaining his decision.
The religious reasons for the missionary trip have been revealed as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the father-of-two ‘seems to be improving’, 24 hours after landing in Georgia from Liberia on Saturday for treatment.
Brantly was transferred amid high security to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which is fitted out with one of the most sophisticated containment facilities in America.
He was pictured being helped out of a special ambulance in a hazmat suit and walking into the hospital.
CDS chief Tom Frieden told Face the Nation on CBS on Sunday they hope Brantly will ‘continue to improve’, but could not say whether they think he will survive the virus.
Frieden said he did not believe Brantley had inffected his wife and children, who were with him in Liberia.
‘When patients are exposed to Ebola but not sick, they cannot infect others … Our understanding is that they did not have contact with him when he was sick,’ Frieden told CBS.
Before Brantly went to Liberia last October, he returned to his hometown of Indianapolis and gave a sermon at the Southeastern Church of Christ, which has been obtained by The Blaze.
‘For two years we will live and work and serve among the people who, until the last 10 years of peace, had known nothing but the violence and devastation of war for the previous 20 years,’ Brantly told the congregation.
‘I’ve never been to Liberia.
‘(I’m going) because God has a call on my life.’
‘On difficult days, when I want to give up or when I wonder if I’ve made the right decision, retelling my story reminds me of how God has brought me to where I am.’
Brantly was able to meet with his wife, Amber, in protective conditions for 45 minutes after arriving in the country on Saturday, NBC reported.
She said he was in ‘great spirits and extremely grateful’ to be home according to a statement released on her behalf by the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse.
The doctor’s sister, mother and father are also at the hospital and it was a ‘relief to welcome him home’, they said via the charity.
U.S. officials are confident that Brantly and a second patient – aid worker Nancy Writebol, who is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday- can be treated without putting the public in any danger.
The specialized unit at Emory University Hospital where the two will be contained was opened a dozen years ago to care for federal health workers exposed to some of the world’s most dangerous germs.
Now it’s being pressed into service for the two seriously ill Americans who worked at a hospital in Liberia, one of the three West Africa countries hit by the largest Ebola outbreak in history.
CDC Director Dr Tom Frieden acknowledged that many Americans are terrified about bringing Dr Brantly and hygienist Writebol back to the U.S. to continue the treatment of their incurable Ebola infections but insisted there was no risk.
‘But I really hope that people’s fear won’t outweigh their compassion. We’ve got a real challenge in Africa and what we need to focus on is stopping the outbreak there. We will be able to stop it, but its going to take supporting people,’ he told CNN.
‘And that means if people who are on that supporting mission get sick, we care for them.’
Dr Frieden added: ‘Ebola is a huge risk in Africa. It’s not going to be a huge risk in the U.S.’
According to WXIA, Emory’s isolation unit is on the ground floor and has three beds with the highest standards in negative pressure air handling, HEPA filtration and exhaust.
‘When this unit was being built, we hoped we’d never have to use the space to treat a serious communicable disease,’ said Emory epidemiologist Bruce Ribner.
Efforts have been made to help the two patients with the means available in Liberia – and just hours before the flight to Atlanta was revealed, father-of-two Brantly gave up the single vial of an experimental treatment sent over from the U.S. in order that Writebol – a grandmother and longtime Christian missionary – could receive it instead.
Brantly received a transfusion of the blood of a 14-year-old Ebola survivor who he personally helped to treat. Giving blood transfusions from survivors to still suffering Ebola patients is an established, though not nearly proven, treatment for the largely untreatable disease.
However, on Thursday charity SIM said in a statement that Mrs Writebol’s condition had worsened, despite the serum.
Her husband, David, is close by but can only visit his wife through a window or dressed in a haz-mat suit.
‘We continue to pray for Nancy’s full and complete recovery,’ said Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA. ‘Even though her condition has worsened, we know she is receiving the best possible medical care, and we are thankful that she has access to this experimental drug.
‘We believe in the power of prayer and ask people around the world not only to pray for Nancy and Kent, but also for everyone affected by this terrible virus.
