As another American patient with Ebola arrives in the United States, here is a look at the American patients who have been diagnosed with this deadly virus.
Ashoka Mukpo arrived at the Nebraska Medical Center on Monday, where he will be treated in the same biocontainment unit that helped Dr. Rick Sacra. Three other Americans, Dr. Kent Brantly, Nancy Writebol and an unnamed patient, have been treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The sixth known American patient was a man named Patrick Sawyer who died in Nigeria.
Name: Patrick Sawyer
Age: 40
Organization: Sawyer was a top official in the Liberian Ministry of Finance.
Where he was infected: Sawyer was caring for his Ebola-stricken sister in Liberia before he flew to Lagos, Nigeria. He collapsed getting off the plane July 20 and was isolated at a local hospital.
Current status: Five days after he arrived at the hospital, Sawyer became the first American — and so far the only American — to die in the current Ebola outbreak.
Name: Dr. Kent Brantly
Age: 33
Organization: Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian international relief organization based in North Carolina.
Where he was infected: Brantly went to Liberia with his wife and two children last year to serve a two-year fellowship. He was there initially to practice general medicine, but when the Ebola outbreak began, he took on the role of medical director for the Samaritan’s Purse Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia.
The CDC believes he contracted the virus from another health care worker at the hospital.
Where he was treated: Brantly was flown to Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia on August 2 and was taken by ambulance to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Treatment given: Brantly received one of the first doses of ZMapp, an experimental drug that had never been tested in humans. ZMapp was developed by the biotech firm Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., which is based in San Diego.
Current status: Brantly was released from Emory on August 21, free of the virus.
Name: Nancy Writebol
Age: 59
Organization: Serving in Mission, also known as SIM, an international mission organization.
Where she was infected: Writebol and her husband, David, arrived in Monrovia in August 2013. Writebol guided missionaries and worked with nurses at ELWA hospital, where her husband was the technical services manager.
Where she was treated: Writebol was flown to Atlanta shortly after Brantly and was treated at Emory University Hospital.
Treatment given: Writebol also received the experimental drug ZMapp before leaving Liberia. She and Brantly also received what’s called supportive therapy at Emory, which means supporting the patient’s immune system as it tries to battle the infection. This usually involves intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration and shock, blood or platelet transfusions and oxygen therapy.
Current status: Writebol was released from Emory on August 19.
Name: Dr. Rick Sacra
Age: 52
Organization: Serving in Mission
Where he was infected: Sacra had been to Liberia with SIM before and volunteered to go again after he heard that fellow missionaries Writebol and Brantly had contracted the virus, SIM USA President Bruce Johnson said. Sacra was delivering babies at a general hospital in Monrovia when he contracted the virus.
Where he was treated: Sacra was flown to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha on September 5. The center houses one of just a few biocontainment units in the United States.
Treatment given: Sacra was treated with aggressive supportive care, including electrolytes and IV fluids. He was also given a blood transfusion with plasma donated by Brantly, which doctors believe had antibodies that Sacra needed to help his immune system fight the Ebola virus. Sacra also received an experimental drug called TKM-Ebola, which the FDA recently approved for wider use.
Current status: Sacra was released from the Nebraska Medical Center on September 25. Though he is free of the virus, his immune system was significantly weakened by the fight. He landed in a Massachusetts hospital with an upper respiratory infection over the weekend and was released Sunday.
Name: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Organization: The World Health Organization has said a doctor working for the agency tested positive for Ebola on September 8.
Where he was infected: Sierra Leone
Where he is being treated: The man arrived at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on September 9.
Current status: Unknown
Name: Ashoka Mukpo
Age: 33
Organization: Freelance camera operator for NBC News
Where he was infected: Mukpo had been to Liberia before and had been in Monrovia for about two weeks before he started presenting with Ebola symptoms on October 1. In addition to working for NBC, he has worked for other international media, including Al Jazeera and Vice News.
Where he is being treated: Mukpo was flown to the United States on October 6 and isolated at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Current status: On Sunday, Mukpo’s father, Dr. Mitchell Levy, told NBC News that Mukpo was feeling “not that ill.” He was able to walk onto the plane with assistance.
