Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, two American aid workers who contracted Ebola while giving care to victims of the deadly virus in Liberia have both been given a clean bill of health and discharged from hospital
“Today is a miraculous day,” Dr. Kent Brantly said at a Thursday news conference in Atlanta with Emory University Hospital staff members. “I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family.” The hospital had announced that he was being discharged Thursday.
The other patient, Nancy Writebol, was released Tuesday and is choosing not to make public comments, the hospital said.
Emory’s staff is confident that their discharges pose “no public health threat,” said Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of Emory’s Infectious Disease Unit, adding that Writebol requested her discharge not be publicly announced at the time.
As she walked out of her isolation room, Writebol said.
“We are tremendously pleased with Dr. Brantly and Mrs. Writebol’s recovery,” Ribner said.
“What we learned in caring for them will help advance the world’s understanding of how to treat Ebola infections and help, hopefully, to improve survival” in other parts of the world, Ribner said at the news conference.
“There may be some recovery time because this is a fairly devastating disease,” but in general, patients without organ damage are expected to “make a complete recovery,” he said.
There is strong epidemiological evidence that after an Ebola patient survives the disease, the survivor becomes immune to that particular strain of Ebola, Ribner told reporters Thursday.