Nancy Writebol, the second American aid worker diagnosed with Ebola, is weak but showing signs of improvement at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, her husband said Tuesday.
The president of the aid group SIM USA told The Associated Press that Writebol's husband described the woman as progressing. Bruce Johnson says he spoke with David Writebol, who said 59-year-old Nancy stood and got on a plane in Liberia with assistance to head to Georgia for treatment. When she arrived Tuesday, she was wheeled in a stretcher.
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David Writebol, still in Liberia, says the family was considering funeral arrangements, but now feels relieved and cautiously optimistic. He praised her treatment in Liberia.
SIM says it's working to bring David Writebol home.
Johnson says SIM has spent nearly $1 million since the diagnoses of Nancy Writebol and the first American brought back, 33-year-old Dr. Kent Brantly. He works for Samaritan's Purse. Johnson says that group has spent more than $1 million.
Brantly and Writebol were both infected despite taking precautions as they treated Ebola patients in West Africa, where the virus has been spreading faster than governments can contain it, killing nearly 900 people so far.
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for Ebola, but several are under development, including ZMapp, made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. The treatment was developed with U.S. military funding by a San Diego company, using antibodies harvested from lab animals that had been injected with parts of the Ebola virus. Tobacco plants in Kentucky are being used to make the treatment.
Both Brantly and Writebol have received the special ZMapp serum and, if the treatment works, it could create pressure to speed through testing and production to help contain the disease in Africa.
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