A United States doctor is expected in Nigeria this weekend to help infected patients fight the Ebola virus. The NBC reports that Dr. Aileen Marty, who teaches at Florida International University’s Wertheim College of Medicine, left Miami yesterday to work with the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.
Marty will treat patients infected with the virus, and participate with a team focused on threat analysis and risk assessment. The FIU doctor has more than 30 years of medical experience, including 25 years in which she served as a Navy doctor and travelled to 50 countries, treating diseases like leprosy, dengue, malaria and Ebola.
Meanwhile, a US aid worker who recovered from an Ebola infection said he was “thrilled to be alive” as he and another patient were discharged from hospital yesterday.
Dr Kent Brantly, 33, thanked supporters for their prayers at a news conference in Atlanta. Nancy Writebol, 59, was discharged Tuesday.
The two were brought to the US for treatment three weeks ago. “Today is a miraculous day,” said Dr Brantly, who appeared healthy if pallid as he addressed reporters yesterday at the Emory University hospital.
“I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family. As a medical missionary, I never imagined myself in this position.”
He said Ebola “was not on the radar” when he and his family moved to Liberia in October. After his family returned to the US as the Ebola outbreak tore through West Africa, he continued to treat Ebola patients and woke up on 23 July feeling “under the weather”.
According to the BBC, Dr Brantly said he lay in bed for nine days, getting progressively sicker and weaker. On 1 August, he was flown to Atlanta for treatment at Emory. Emory infectious disease specialist Dr Bruce Ribner said after rigorous treatment and testing officials were confident Dr Brantly had recovered “and he can return to his family, his community and his life without public health concerns”. The group for which he was working in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse, said they were celebrating his recovery.
Source: Daily Trust
