(CNN) -- Dr. Kent Brantly walked around the
room at Emory University Hospital on Thursday,
hugging staff members and shaking hands.
It was like he wanted everyone to know: I'm no
longer infectious. The virus is out of my system.
Ebola didn't beat me.
Brantly and Nancy Writebol, another American
missionary infected with Ebola in Liberia, have
been discharged from the hospital. Writebol was
released Tuesday and is choosing not to make
public comments, according to the hospital.
"Today is a miraculous day," Brantly said at a
news conference Thursday. "I am thrilled to be
alive, to be well and to be reunited with my
family."
What happens when you survive
Ebola?
Emory's staff is confident that the
American patients' discharges pose
"no public health threat," said Dr.
Bruce Ribner, director of Emory's
Infectious Disease Unit. He said the
reason the public was not made
aware of Writebol's release
immediately was that she requested
her discharge not be publicly
announced.
"Nancy is free of the virus, but the
lingering effects of the battle have left
her in a significantly weakened
condition," her husband, David
Writebol, said in a statement. "Thus,
we decided it would be best to leave
the hospital privately to be able to
give her the rest and recuperation she
needs at this time."
But Brantly passed along gratitude
from the woman with whom he has
shared a harrowing journey.
Both patients were evacuated from
Liberia this month, in a plane specially
equipped with an isolation tent, and
accompanied by medical staff outfitted
in head-to-foot protective clothing.
The plane was able to take only one patient at a
time and made two trips. The patients were taken
to an isolation unit at Emory, where they'd been
treated for the last few weeks.
As she walked out of her isolation room Tuesday,
Brantly recalls Writebol saying, "To God be the
glory."
"We are tremendously pleased with Dr. Brantly
and Mrs. Writebol's recovery," Ribner said at the
news conference. "What we learned in caring for
them will help advance the world's understanding
of how to treat Ebola infections and help,
hopefully, to improve survival" in other parts of
the world.
"There may be some recovery time because this
is a fairly devastating disease," but in general,
Ebola patients who survive without organ damage
are expected to "make a complete recovery," he
said.
Brantly and Writebol's releases are historic, says
CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay
Gupta. They were the first humans with Ebola to
ever arrive in the United States. And they were
the first humans to receive an experimental Ebola
drug called ZMapp, which may have saved their
lives.
Treating Ebola
There is no known cure for Ebola, no proven
treatment and no vaccine. Treatment consists of
giving fluids, monitoring vital signs and
responding to acute medical crises. Symptoms
include fever, aches, diarrhea and bleeding.
Left untreated, infections can be
deadly in up to 90% of cases. But
around half the patients receiving
medical care in the current outbreak in
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and
Guinea are surviving.
The Ebola virus spreads via direct
contact with bodily fluids, like blood,
sweat and feces. For Ebola patients to
leave isolation, Ribner said, two blood
tests done in a two-day period must
come back negative.
There is a slight possibility that the
virus could linger for up to three
months in vaginal fluid and semen ,
according to the World Health
Organization. Ribner said that there is
no evidence Ebola has ever been
transmitted in this way but that the
risk was discussed with both patients.
Asked about the role the experimental
drug may have played in their recoveries, Ribner
said doctors "do not know whether it helped
them, whether it made no difference" or whether
it might have delayed their recovery.
ZMapp was also given to three health care
workers -- two doctors and one nurse -- in
Liberia. The nurse and one of the doctors have
shown "a marked improvement," according to the
World Health Organization. The condition of the
second doctor is "serious but has improved
somewhat."
More human cases must be analyzed to
determine whether the drug is having a significant
effect or if it will help others in the region. But
"according to the manufacturer, the very limited
supplies of this experimental medicine are now
exhausted," the WHO said in a statement
Thursday.
Are they now immune to Ebola?
A deadly outbreak
More than 1,350 people have died in the West
African Ebola outbreak since the first cases drew
attention in March, the WHO said Wednesday .
Aid workers are fighting an uphill battle to stop
the disease as it continues to spread. Financial
and human resources have been stretched.
An emergency research "all call" was issued
Thursday by medical charity Wellcome Trust and
the United Kingdom's Department for International
Development to find a drug to stop the outbreak.
They are making $10.8 million available to fund
research. Wellcome Trust is committing another
$66.5 million to the development of health
research scientists in Africa, who are studying
many deadly diseases there.
Canada's public health agency had 800 to 1,000
doses of a vaccine known as VSV-EBOV delivered
to health officials in Liberia last week. It's
unclear if anyone has been given the vaccine.
But there has been a glimmer of hope: The World
Health Organization has seen "encouraging signs"
from Nigeria and Guinea that positive action can
rein in the deadly disease.
The situation in Lagos, Nigeria, where the
country's first case was detected in July, "looks
reassuring," the WHO said.
"At present, the city's 12 confirmed cases are all
part of a single chain of transmission. Those
infected by the initial case include medical staff
involved in his treatment, a patient in the same
hospital, and a protocol officer in very close
contact with the patient," the organization said.
One of those 12 has made a full recovery, the
WHO said, which "counters the widespread
perception that infection with the Ebola virus is
invariably a death sentence." Evidence suggests
early detection and therapy can help people
survive, it said.
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