The deadly Ebola virus has caused a health crisis in West Africa, with its 50-90 percent fatality rate. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has warned travelers against going to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia where the disease seems to be raging. Now Atlanta residents should be aware that Emory Healthcare has announced that the hospital will be treating an Ebola patient.
It is thought that one of the patients might be either Dr. Kent Brantly of Texas or Nancy Writebol, a North Carolina-based missionary, Americans who contracted Ebola in Liberia while working with the sick. It was reported by CNN that a medical charter flight left Georgia for Monrovia, Liberia to evacuate the two Americans on Thursday.
Emory Hospital has a special isolation unit that has been setup with the help of the CDC to treat the Ebola infected patient. According to a statement from Emory Healthcare:
“Physicians, nurses and staff are highly trained in the specific and unique protocols and procedures necessary to treat and care for this type of patient … For this specially trained staff, these procedures are practiced on a regular basis throughout the year so we are fully prepared for this type of situation,” More than 700 people have died so far in the Ebola outbreak and in Sierra Leone, soldiers are conducting a house by house search for those who may be infected or have been exposed to the disease.
Recently Patrick Sawyer, 40, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who worked for the Finance Ministry of Liberia, died of Ebola while in Lagos, Nigeria. Now the Nigerian government is attempting to identify at least 30,000 unknown people who also may have been exposed to the disease.
