Kent Brantly always wanted to be a medical missionary, and he took
the work seriously, spending months treating a steady stream of patients
with Ebola in Liberia.
Now Brantly is himself a patient, fighting
for his own survival in an isolation unit on the outskirts of Monrovia,
Liberia, after contracting the deadly disease.
The Texas-trained
doctor says he is "terrified" of the disease progressing further,
according to Dr David Mcray, the director of maternal-child health at
John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where Brantly completed a
four-year residency.
"I'm praying fervently that God will help me
survive this disease," Brantly said in an email on Monday to Mcray. He
also asked that prayers be extended for Nancy Writebol, an American
co-worker who also has fallen ill with Ebola.
Brantly "went into
Ebola exhausted" from treating Ebola patients, Mcray said after speaking
with him Monday. His prognosis is grave and efforts to evacuate him to
Europe for treatment have been thwarted because of concerns expressed by
countries he would have to fly over en route to any European
destination, Mcray said.
There is no known cure for Ebola, which
begins with symptoms including fever and sore throat and escalates to
vomiting, diarrhea and internal bleeding. The disease spreads through
direct contact with blood and other bodily fluids as well as indirect
contact with "environments contaminated with such fluids," according to
the World Health Organisation.
Still, colleagues and family
members said Brantly, aged 33, knew of the risks associated with working
in one of the world's poorest countries during an epidemic and did not
regret his choice.
"Kent prepared himself to be a lifetime medical missionary," said his mother, Jan Brantly. "His heart is in Africa."
Last
October, Brantly began a two-year fellowship with Samaritan's Purse, a
Christian aid group, to serve as a general practitioner, delivering
babies and performing surgeries at a mission hospital in the Monrovia
suburb of Paynseville.
When Ebola spread from neighbouring Guinea
into Liberia, Brantly and his wife, Amber, re-evaluated their
commitment, but decided to stay in West Africa with their children, ages
3 and 5.
Brantly directed the hospital's Ebola clinic, wearing
full-body protective gear in the Equatorial heat for upward of three
hours at a time to treat patients.
He undertook humanitarian work
while studying medicine at Indiana University, working in impoverished,
inner-city neighbourhoods, according to a medical school spokesperson.
During
his four-year family medicine residency, he accompanied Mcray on
medical missions to Uganda and earthquake-devastated Haiti. He also
spent several weeks working in Tanzania, where a cousin lives and works
as a medical missionary, Mcray said.
Before contracting Ebola, Brantly and his family "really enjoyed Liberia".
"They were very well-adjusted," said Ken Kauffeldt, the country director for Samaritan's Purse in Monrovia.
Liberia's health ministry is investigating how Brantly contracted the virus.
"We're
trying to figure out what went wrong because he was always very
careful," said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister in
Monrovia.
Amber Brantly and the children departed for a wedding in the US just days before Brantly fell ill and quarantined himself.
They
are currently staying with family in Abilene and, while not subject to
quarantine, are monitoring their temperatures for an early sign of viral
infection, a City of Abilene spokesperson said.
Obama briefed
President
Barack Obama is getting updates on the outbreak from Guinea, Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Nigeria, an administration official said on Monday,
noting US agencies had increased their assistance in the past several
weeks.
The United States has been providing supplies including personal protective equipment, the administration official said.
"We
have been engaged on this outbreak since April, when the first cases
were reported and have increased response significantly over the last
several weeks as the outbreak deepened," the official said.
Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, said in a televised interview on Monday that the outbreak was of "grave concern".
"We
are very much present and active in trying to help the countries of the
region and the international authorities like the World Health
Organisation address and contain this threat. But it is indeed a very
worrying epidemic," Rice told MSNBC.
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