The condition of American Dr. Kent Brantly stricken with
Ebola seems to have improved, the director of the Centre
for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.

Dr. Thomas Frieden said it was encouraging to see Dr.
Brantly walk out of the ambulance unassisted when he
arrived at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital from Liberia
at the weekend.

Frieden said he understands the public’s concerns about
Ebola, and the public health role is to ensure that the
infection is not spread.

The CDC chief said old-fashioned practices were required to stop the spread of Ebola in West Africa. These include
finding the patients and their contacts, making sure
they’re treated, educating the public and doing rigorous
infection control in hospitals.

Ebola is only spread through direct contact of bodily fluids.

This current Ebola outbreak is the worst on record and has killed more than 700 in three countries in West African and infected more than 1,300.

Before Brantly arrived in Atlanta, not much about his
condition had been made public. According to Samaritan’s

Purse, the aid organisation he was working for, Brantly was in “serious but stable” condition before being flown to the U.S.

When the doctor was able to walk into the hospital, at least two experts said they were surprised but pleased that the doctor seemed to be doing well.

This strain of the Ebola virus has a fatality rate of
approximately 60 per cent and past outbreaks had fatality rates as high as 90 percent.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said he felt
“guardedly optimistic”, since Ebola usually advances
quickly and Brantly had shown signs of the disease for at
least a week.

Source:The Nation

"When he is fully recovered we will like to know his secret" - Experts