Mom ‘Trusting God’ for Ebola-Infected U.S. Doctor’s Life.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-28/mom-trusting-god-for-ebola-infected-u-s-doctor-s-life.html

Kent Brantly, a 33-year-old doctor who volunteered to fight deadly Ebola in Africa soon after finishing his hospital residency in Texas, is one of two U.S.citizens being treated for the disease.

“We’re just trusting God for his life,” the physician’s mother, Jan Brantly, said in a telephone interview from Indianapolis. “We’re praying, and we’re sustained by our faith.”

Ebola has killed 672 people in four West African nations since March, the worst outbreak since the virus was first reported in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. With no known cure, the illness can lead to bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose, and causes death in as many as 90 percent of those who get it.

More than 1,200 people have been infected, the World Health Organization said yesterday in astatement.

Brantly, the medical director of the Ebola center run by Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia’s capital of Monrovia, and Nancy Writebol, a worker at the center, are being treated there, the Boone, North Carolina-based charity said in a statement. They are each married with two children, the group said. The doctor’s family is in the U.S. while the whereabouts of Writebol’s family haven’t been released.

Brantly has been in Liberia since October 2013, according to his mother. “He was prepared to be a medical missionary. and that’s what he has chosen to do with his life,” Jan Brantly said yesterday. “He and his wife have always had that plan and that dream.”

The Ebola virus is transmitted from wild animals including chimpanzees, gorillas and bats, according to the Geneva-based WHO. Humans spread it through contact with bodily fluids. It causes fever, diarrhea and vomiting.

Nigeria reported its first case last week after an infected Liberian man landed in Lagos, Africa’s largest city. Liberia has shut all minor border crossings and is setting up testing centers at major entry points, AllAfrica.com reported, citing a government statement. The disease victim, Peter Sawyer, worked at Liberia’s finance ministry.

Liberia shut the ministry yesterday and said officials who had contact with Sawyer will be watched for signs of the illness. The ministry is scheduled to reopen today.

“As this epidemic goes on, this sort of thing is eventually probably going to happen,” said Ben Neuman, a virologist at the University of Reading in the U.K., speaking of how the outbreak may spread.

Stable Condition

Brantly is in stable condition, Strickland said, adding, “It’s easy to figure out what kind of person volunteers to take on this mission. He’s a highly skilled professional, he’s courageous, he’s compassionate.”

Brantly remains hopeful and steadfast in his faith, McRay said.

“He’s very hopeful and praying for his recovery but he’s also very knowledgeable about the course of his illness,” McRay said, after speaking yesterday with Brantly. Brantly has kept in communication with his wife, who left with their 3-year-old and 5-year-old children before Kent Brantly had symptoms, McRay said.

“She’s terrified, and yet hopeful and prayerful, shares her husband’s deep faith and deep resolve,” McRay said. “They have no doubts and no regrets about their decision.”

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Treatment focuses on replenishing fluids, maintaining proper blood pressure and replacing lost blood, as well as treating any other infections.

Highest Risk

Medical staff are at the highest risk of contracting the virus because of their proximity to patients. Health workers attending to the patient should wear gloves, gowns and face visors to prevent contact between the patient’s bodily fluids and their own mucus membranes, such as the eyes, mouth, nose and ears, said Heymann, who has studied Ebola since 1976.

Strickland called Brantly “meticulous,” saying that’s why he was given the job in the first place. “We have every confidence that those protocols were not breached,” she said. The group is investigating how Brantly may have been exposed, according to Strickland.

Denial the disease exists, hostility to medical workers, a lack of medical supplies and below-standard hygiene are complicating efforts to contain the spread of the disease. In Sierra Leone, victims’ families have attacked doctors, while in neighboring Liberia the husband of a victim tried to burn the hospital down where his wife died.

In recent surveys by Samaritan’s Purse, 84 percent of 2,920 Monrovia residents surveyed said they didn’t believe Ebola was real, according to the group’s website.

Staff of the North Carolina-based charity Samaritan's Purse puts on protective gear at the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, on July 24, 2014.