Third Ebola Patient Coming to Emory for Treatment

A third person who has contracted the deadly Ebola virus will be treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, WSB-TV reports.

The patient, whose identity and nationality are currently unknown, contracted the disease in Sierra Leone and is being transported to Atlanta by way of Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta. The patient is expected to arrive some time Tuesday morning, though the specific time is not yet known.

Emory University Hospital has a 100 percent cure rate for the disease following their successful treatments of an American aid worker and doctor. Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly were sent to the hospital after they contracted the disease in Liberia. Brantly and Writebol were released from the hospital in late August after a successful course of treatment.

The pair were treated in a state of the art isolation ward that is physically separated from other parts of the hospital. Only a handful of medical personnel ever interacted with Brantly or Writebol during their recovery. The facility is one of four such facilities in the country; Dr. Richard Sarca, who replaced Brantly in west Africa, has been sent to the Nebraska Medical Center’s Biocontainment Patient Care Unit in Omaha after he also contracted the virus.

In Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Nigeria, at least 3,967 people have been infected and at least 2,105 have died since the outbreak began in December, 2013. This is the most severe outbreak of Ebola in history.