A second American medic fighting the Ebola virus outbreak in western Africa has tested positive for the disease.
Kent Brantly, 33, working in Monrovia, Liberia, with the aid group Samaritan's Purse, "recognized his own symptoms and confined himself to an isolation ward,"
Reuters reported Saturday. He is the second American after Nancy Writebol — who was working in Monrovia with the Serving in Mission organization — to contract the virus during the latest outbreak.
Ken Isaacs, a vice president of Samaritan's Purse,
told The Associated Press on Sunday that Dr. Brantly was stable and in very serious condition.
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"We are hopeful and prayerful," he said. "It's been a shock to everyone on our team to have two of our players get pounded with the disease."
Commenting on Writebol's status, he said, "She is showing full symptoms of the disease."
Brantly was working as a medical director of the city's Ebola center, and Writebol was working as a hygienist who decontaminated those coming in and out.
Brantly's wife and two children had been living with him but flew home to the U.S. roughly a week before he began to show symptoms of the disease. A spokeswoman for Samaritan's Purse said the family has not shown any symptoms of the disease. Writebol's husband told his church congregation back home — which sponsors her work — that his wife was very sick, and that he was not allowed to visit her room.
"These are real heroes — people who do things quietly behind the scenes, people with a very strong vocation and very strong faith," said their pastor, John Munro, of Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The World Health Organization has said the current Ebola outbreak has affected parts of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, killing at least 670 thus far. It is the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded.
Historically, Ebola is known to spread primarily through bodily fluids, and has killed 90 percent of those who've contracted it.
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