American Ebola Doc: ‘I Am Thrilled to Be Alive’

Calling it a “miraculous day,” an American doctor infected with Ebola left his isolation unit  on Thursday, showing the world that he poses no public health threat one month after getting sick with the virus.

Dr. Kent Brantly and his fellow medical missionary, Nancy Writebol, who was quietly discharged two days earlier, are still weak but should recover completely, and no one need fear being in contact with them, said Dr. Bruce Ribner, who runs the infectious disease unit at Emory University Hospital.

Brantly’s reappearance was festive and celebratory, a stark contrast to his arrival in an ambulance under police escort three weeks earlier, when he shuffled into the hospital wearing a bulky white haz-mat suit.

“I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family,” Brantly said, choking up as he read a written statement.

After Brantly, 33, and Writebol, 59, were infected while working with Ebola victims in Liberia, their charity organizations, Samaritan’s Purse and SIM, reached out to top infectious disease experts for help.

Working connections, they obtained one of only five courses available worldwide of an experimental drug known as Zmapp, and Brantly and Writebol split the doses before being evacuated to Atlanta. The other four were later given to a Spanish priest, who died, and three doctors in Africa, who have been improving.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the August 22nd, 2014 edition of Hamodia.