Great news at last: A miraculous day for two Ebola patients.

By SHAUNA ANDERSON

In amazing news, two American Ebola patients have done the unthinkable and survived – being discharged from the hospital they were being treated at in the US.

Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, an American Doctor and aid worker respectively, were infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia, where they were working at a missionary clinic.

They were flown to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta in early August =.

Upon his release, 33-year-old Dr Brantly – a father of two – said he was thrilled to be alive.

“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 at a press conference.

“God saved my life. Please do not stop praying for the people of West Africa,” he said, as reported by USA Today.

Nancy Writebol, 59, did not appear at the conference but her husband released a statement saying she was free of the virus but in a weakened condition and was recuperating at an undisclosed location.

“We decided it would be best to leave the hospital privately to be able to give her the rest and recuperation she needs at this time,” her husband said in a statement.

Dr Bruce Ribner, medical director of Emory’s Infectious Disease Unit, said at the press conference that he anticipates a “complete recovery” for both Americans.

He urged the public to be aware that the two now posed no public health threat.

“The Emory Healthcare team is extremely pleased with Dr Brantly’s and Mrs Writebol’s recovery, and was inspired by their spirit and strength, as well as by the steadfast support of their families,” Dr Ribner said.

Brantly and Writebol had been treated with an experimental drug called ZMapp, according to CNN. The drug had been untested by humans before.

CNN questioned whether this drug would now be used to treat the 2,500 people in Africa suffering the disease. From CNN:

Will ZMapp or these other drugs be given to more Ebola patients?

An ethics panel convened by the World Health Organization concluded it is ethical to give experimental drugs during an outbreak as large as this one, but that doesn’t mean it will happen.

Rolling out an untested drug during a massive outbreak would be very difficult, Doctors Without Borders says.

Experimental drugs typically are not mass-produced, and tracking the success of such a drug, if used, would require extra medical staff where resources are already scarce.

In an opinion article published in the journal Nature this week, epidemiologist Oliver Brady says up to 30,000 people in West Africa would have so far required treatment in this outbreak if it was available.

Ebola has killed more than 1,350 in Africa.
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