Ebola-infected American missionary Nancy Writebol will be heading back to the US on Tuesday from Liberia to seek treatment at the same Atlanta hospital where Dr. Kent Brantly is in quarantine.
Writebol was working as a missionary nurse in a Liberian hospital when she contracted the deadly virus.
“This last week has stretched out to feel like a month already at least,” her son, Jeremy, told WCNC. “We know that Mom is in the care of the Lord — she is in the best hands possible right now — so that really helps sustain us, helps my dad and my mom, through this trial.”
Completely covered in a protective suit, Brantly arrived at Emory University Hospital on Saturday, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said he already “appears to be improving.”
But while CDC chief Tom Frieden told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that they’re hoping he’ll continue to respond to treatment, it remains uncertain whether he’ll survive.
Before heading off to Liberia, Brantly outlined his religious reasons for traveling abroad in a heartfelt sermon delivered to a congregation in his hometown of Indianapolis.
“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,” he said, according to The Blaze. “I’ve never been to Liberia. (I’m going) because God has a call on my life.”
Meanwhile, Ebola panic is spreading worldwide. A 72-year-old woman inspired fear that Ebola had spread to Britain when she reportedly began “sweating buckets and vomiting” just after landing at Gatwick airport on a flight from Sierra Leone.
Soon after disembarking from the plane, the elderly woman collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, where she died on Saturday, the Sunday Mirror reports.
Anxious airport staff briefly quarantined the aircraft — which was carrying 128 passengers — and rushed to track down everyone who had been in the woman’s proximity.
“Everyone’s just petrified,” a hospital worker told the Mirror. “We’ve all seen how many people have died from Ebola, especially in Sierra Leone, and it’s terrifying.”
A state of emergency was declared in the West African country after more than 200 people died from the worst outbreak of the deadly disease ever.
Given her suspicious symptoms, the woman was tested for Ebola at the hospital — and thankfully she was not harboring the often-fatal virus.
“The hospital carried out tests for Ebola and other infectious diseases as a precaution,” a spokeswoman for Gatwick airport told the Mirror. “The tests came back negative.”
The woman actually died of natural causes.
Passengers’ names were recorded and the plane was briefly held on the tarmac.
“We did not allow any crew to board the flight until we had spoken to Public Health England, who cleared the plane for its return journey,” the airport spokeswoman said.
In Africa, Nigerian authorities say they have confirmed a second case of Ebola in Africa’s most populous country, an alarming development after a man who traveled by plane to the country died of Ebola.
Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said Monday that the second person with Ebola is a doctor who had helped treat Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died of Ebola in late July.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has already led to the deaths of 729 people, the World Health Organization reports.