Dr. Richard Sacra, who was infected with the Ebola disease, is now free from the virus and has been released from Nebraska Medical Center.
The 51-year old Dr. Sacra was infected with the life threatening disease while he was working for international aid organization Serving in Mission (SIM) USA in one of the worst Ebola hit countries - Liberia. Dr. Sacra was not working directly with Ebola patients but he was in Liberia to treat sick pregnant women. He believes that he got the Ebola virus from a woman he was treating.
Dr. Sacra revealed that he fell sick on Aug. 29 and blood samples confirmed that he had Ebola. He was flown to the U.S. in a biocontainment unit, which was specially designed for patients suffering from dangerous infectious diseases such as Ebola. He was admitted to the isolation unit of Nebraska Medical Center on Sept. 5, the day he arrived from Liberia and doctors started to treat him immediately.
Even though, there are currently no vaccines to treat Ebola, Dr. Sacra was given TKM-Ebola, an experimental drug that interrupts the ability of the Ebola virus to replicate. Dr. Sacra also received a couple of blood transfusions.
"The CDC [the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has declared me safe and free of virus," per Dr. Sacra's announced at a news conference at Nebraska Medical Center.
The latest Ebola outbreak, which started earlier this year, is said to be the worst outbreak of the disease in West Africa. Thousands of people are infected with the disease and about 3,000 have also lost their lives due to Ebola. A previous report suggests that CDC has warned that Ebola cases may reach up to 1.4 million by mid-January 2015 if not controlled.
Dr. Sacra is not the first American to get rid of the deadly Ebola virus. Dr. Kent Brantly, Dr. Sacra's friend and fellow worker, was the first American to be treated with Ebola virus. Another aid worker with SIM USA, Nancy Writebol, was the second American to be treated for Ebola.
Both Brantly and Writebol have successfully recovered from Ebola after receiving treatment from ZMapp, another experimental Ebola drug.
Currently, there are no drugs commercially available to treat Ebola. However, healthcare experts suggest that the chances of recovering from the disease are increased if it is found at an early stage. Pharmaceutical companies around the world are researching to develop a drug to combat Ebola and a previous report suggests that a medicine to combat the disease will be available for use by 2015.
