American Doctor With Ebola Arrives At U.S. Hospital
American doctor Kent Brantly has been transferred from Liberia to the U.S. to receive treatment for Ebola at one of America's top hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia.
Brantly, who worked as a missionary for the evangelical humanitarian organization Samaritan's Purse, was infected with the dangerous Ebola virus late last month while working at a clinic for Ebola patients in Liberia. On Saturday, he was transferred from Africa to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, considered to be one of the safest places to treat Ebola in the U.S.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that its agency had received over 100 "nasty emails" condemning the United States' decision to bring an infected Ebola patient into an American hospital.
Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, argued that aid workers giving their time to help others overseas should receive the best treatment from their home country.
"I hope that our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the U.S. for care," Frieden said.
The hospital's extensive ebola prevention measures reportedly ensure that no hospital employee or fellow patient can contract the Ebola virus from Brantly, who is kept in a "negative air pressure room" that prevents air from escaping and is only visited by doctors and nurses fully suited in protective gear.
Aerial footage from Brantly's arrival at Emory University Hospital on Saturday shows the patient arriving in an ambulance in a full white safety suit, and being escorted inside by a hospital employee wearing an identical white safety suit.
Another American aid worker infected with the virus, Nancy Writebol, will also arrive in the U.S. within the next few days.