It's a very sad thing, his contracting the disease. Do people actually survive it? I really don't know. Let's hope he does not make the ultimate sacrifice. Let us know if/when you hear more about this wonderful man, Sylvia.

Ebola kills 90% of its victims.

He requested prayers for his colleague, Nancy Writebol, who also contracted the disease.

'Amber Brantly and the children departed for a wedding in the U.S. just days before Brantly fell ill and quarantined himself.
They are currently staying with family in Abilene and, while not subject to quarantine, are monitoring their temperatures for an early sign of viral infection, a City of Abilene spokeswoman said.'

Dr Brantly, 33, is fighting for his life in an isolation unit in Monrovia, Liberia.

'efforts to evacuate him to Europe for treatment have been thwarted because of concerns expressed by countries he would have to fly over en route to any European destination, Mcray said.'

(McRay is director of maternal/child health at John Peter Smith Hospital in Ft Worth, where Brantly did his residency;
he's been talking to Brantly.)

If you have time, please read the article.

This is a really decent, warm, compassionate person.

Here is a link that might be useful: link to article from which I quoted

Sad and prayers the spread can be contained.

I heard about this. It's heart breaking. I pray they all make it. So sad.

Very sad, and really scary. If he always wore full protection, there must have been a breach somewhere. I wonder how he became infected. I hope that he can fight this, but it sounds like he was in an exhausted state when contracting the disease and his weakened state will not help.

I heard them talking about it on the radio today, and understand that the doctors wore full Hasmat suits, which goes to show you how very, very dangerous and contagious this disease is. They say the first symptoms are very similar to the flu or to malaria, and by the time you realize you have it, it has destroyed your internal organs. There was a close call with a man who was on his way to Laos, who came down with it just before he got on a plane from Nigeria. He died. So sorry for the doctor and those suffering from this terrible disease.

Another doctor has died.

Like Dr Brantly, he was 'meticulous' in taking precautions, & no one knows how he was infected.

The first stages resemble flu:
aches, sore throat, etc.

By the time you can tell the difference, it's extremely advanced & many internal organs are damaged or destroyed.

Liberia now has the police examining people at the airport.

Here is a link that might be useful: more about efforts to control ebola

That's horrible. Poor man, just trying to do some good.

If there's no obvious way he could have been infected, I can't help wondering what else isn't known about the disease.

I was wondering the same thing alisande. Very scary!

There was enough experimental medicine for one person;
Dr Brantly asked the doctors to give it to his colleague, missionary Nancy Writebol.

They're both still with us, so maybe that famous Kitchen Table energy is helping.

Please hold him, & her, in your hearts & in your prayers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Update

They are apparently bringing a patient to Atlanta.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ebola/NY Times

'West African leaders quickened the pace of emergency efforts on Thursday, deploying soldiers and authorizing house-to-house searches for infected people in an effort to combat the disease.'

house-to-house searches...
chilling.

Link tells about efforts to control the plague that killed somewhere between 75 & 200 million people in Europe in the mid-1300s.

Here is a link that might be useful: Public Health Efforts to Control 14th Century Plague

I wish nothing but the best for those infected. It's especially sad when someone devotes their life to helping and ends up ill or worse. I am praying they pull through.

I have to admit though that it makes me nervous that they are bringing the infected Americans back to the US. I am glad they will get exceptional care, of course, but even with precautions it makes no sense to me to introduce Ebola to a country where it currently doesn't exist (even controlled introduction). I just have to hope there aren't any additional mistakes made. I know Ebola is relatively easy to contain due to how it spreads but still, mistakes have and will continue to happen with regards to accidental exposure and spread.

I just read that research complete with virus will be taking place at UTMB in Galveston just down the road from me.
I have great respect for research and for UTMB, but because of the location, human error, and hurricanes, it has given me pause for thought.

sylvia, I agree and I disagree. It may take efforts this stringent to get it under control. Not everywhere is like the US. We've access to solid care and freedom from searches, but that's not everyone. Unfortunately. That is, I sort of agree with the ends. Not the means.

The thing is, I think house to house searches might have the opposite effect of what was planned. Some might send ill loved ones far away if they perceived danger from searches.

sorry, I wasn't making a judgment, although I would if the house-to-house searches were for a lesser reason;
it's just horrifying that this disease is so powerful & so devastating that it warrants this kind of response.

I was reading something earlier & found that some researchers speculate that ebola is the same type of virus as the black death...
which killed between 75 & 200 million people in Europe in the mid-14th century.

I agree with Chi83. The Emory isolation ward is top notch, and its staff trained to the nth degree, but those unfortunate workers in Africa took every precaution and still contracted the disease. It's a little unnerving.

News just said that "both" people will be brought to our Emery Hospital in Atlanta. One is to arrive Monday and the other several days later.

They have my sincere prayers that they survive, nobody else gets infected and no mistakes are made that would allow this to spread here in our country.

Both of these wonderful volunteers will be in my praters for a complete recovery. I'll also be praying for an end to this horrendous disease.

I will keep these health workers in my thoughts and prayers.

But I am a little worried that they are bringing this disease into the US. These people were meticulous about following contamination protocols and still they contacted this virus. The CDC and everyone else is giving us happy talk about how it will be "virtually" impossible for this disease to spread here, but I'm not so sure.

I have to admit I'm a little more than concerned. And if it jumps to an animal, we could be in big trouble.

Chi83, I agree with you also~~it makes me very nervous. Things seem to be so out of wack lately, I have really been in a DoomsDay mood about somethings lately. the world is just moving too fast for me~

My prayers are with him and I'm glad he's back in the US where he can get the best medical treatment to hopefully improve his chances.

I'm a lot more concerned about a traveler who has been exposed but doesn't realize it causing an outbreak than I am this doctor, given the conditions under which he is being transported and treated.

CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden says any hospital with an intensive care unit and isolation facilities could handle a patient with Ebola. (from NBCNews.com)

Sorry, but knowing how off-base the CDC is about tick-borne illness, this statement doesn't reassure me.

I just saw Dr. Brantly walking into the hospital--that's encouraging! It would appear that he's doing better, and let's hope that's true.

This post was edited by alisande on Sat, Aug 2, 14 at 22:20

I'm just listening on CNN to the news that Dr. B. and the woman who was ill were given an experimental drug, and Dr. B seemed to respond to it very quickly. It kind of gave me goosebumps to hear that doctors called it a "miracle," a word doctors don't use. I'm so glad Dr. B is doing well and hope the same for the woman. Let's also hope that the drug really can help.

just read an update that says he continues to improve;
he's received another dose of the experimental drug.

Can we get a couple of plane loads of that drug to Africa?
pronto?

That would be great, and I think they are working towards upping production.

The problem is that it could be a disaster for the US and the drug company to distribute their untested and experimental drugs out to Africans if there turns out to be some serious side effects. I think it's one thing to distribute experimental drugs to Americans who fully know the situation and the risks but quite another to distribute to another country with a population that may not always understand the situation, even at their own government request.

Hopefully the African governments would take responsibility for distribution and potential side effects given the morbid alternatives, but we all know the right thing isn't always what ends up happening.

I agree with Allisande and others expressing concern about knowingly bringing pts. with Ebola into the US. The CDC has been very reassuring about their ability to contain this didease, but the CDC's track record hasn't been stellar lately.

I'm with kittiemom.

Tick borne conditions are not fully understood from a medical standpoint. Research is ongoing, some treatments work and some don't, why is that, what else should be done? Etc, etc. Much is still unclear and unknown, not unlike chronic fatigue.

To consider the CDC responsible for these and other medical mysteries doesn't seem reasonable to me. Physicians treat patients, not the CDC.

What about the CDC's track record is of concern to you? What other public health organization in other countries would you point to as doing a better job? i think experts around the world consider it the gold standard.

I have read that they both got infected from another worker. If another worker at the field hospital was not noticeably sick, they may not have been wearing protective gear around them. The CDC is apparently investigating.

But for those concerned about this, keep in mind the vast differences between America and rural Africa. The CDC and WHO have said that a big problem is that the people there don't trust these medical workers and want to hide their family members who are sick and take them to traditional healers. All the while, they're caring for them and exposing themselves. We also don't wash and prepare the bodies of dead family members ourselves. There is a big difference in sanitation as well, since many areas there don't even have running water and certainly no hand sanitizer.

The flu has killed many more people than Ebola. A lot of us have probably had or know someone who has had the flu, and most people just don't think about how deadly it can be because it's something we're used to.

I think that even if a traveler were to bring Ebola to the US, we could contain it a lot more rapidly than they have in Africa. That is because of the cultural differences I mentioned above in addition to the fact that we have modern hospitals readily available, not field hospitals without running water. It is just not possible to have the same level of sanitation in a situation like that. We also have plenty of trained medical professionals who are used to treating deadly things like Hepatitis C and HIV.

As long as the drug's side effects don't include death, takng the drug is a better gamble than not taking it.

Mare_wpba may be referring to the recently reported incidents where
1) the CDC found vials in a storage facility it has been managing that happened to contain live smallpox virus. and
2) the CDC admitted that they had sent live anthrax samples to a lab not able to safely store them.

Thanks bob_cville, that's exactly what I was referring to.

Let's have the facts:

Smallpox incident - NIH employees discovered some smallpox virus samples in vials in an FDA lab at the NIH. The lab has been an FDA operation since 1972.

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/s0708-nih.html

Anthrax incident - several dozen people were potentially exposed to anthrax when a researcher failed to follow established safety procedures. No one reportedly got ill.

These were two experimental lab incidents, one not involving the CDC but both involving a failure to follow safety rules. Neither of which have anything to do with public health policy decisions.

Reading just headlines or relying on TV news stories can often lead to misunderstanding the who, what, where, when of a news story.