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Ebola-Stricken Doctor From Indiana Now In Atlanta For Treatment

 

The wife of an American doctor infected with Ebola in Africa says she's pleased her husband was able to walk out of an ambulance when he arrived at a hospital in Atlanta.

He didn't need a stretcher — not even an arm around his shoulder.

Kent Brantly, of Fort Worth, Texas, is the first person to be treated for Ebola on American soil. The 33-year-old family doctor surprised everyone Saturday when he walked out of an ambulance and into an Atlanta hospital.

Brantly had just flown in a special air ambulance from Liberia to receive treatment for Ebola in an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital. When he exited the ambulance, he was covered head to toe in a protective suit to prevent spreading the virus. But he stepped into the hospital on his own.

"It was a relief to welcome Kent home today," his wife, Amber, said in a statement Saturday. "I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S."

Amber Brantly and the couple's two children were in the U.S. when her husband got sick in Liberia. He was treating Ebola patients at a clinic in Monrovia.

The Associated Press reports fellow aid worker Nancy Writebol is expected to arrive in Atlanta in the next few days.

Update at 12:32 p.m. ET: WHO Says Two Probable Cases In Nigeria

So far, more than 900 people have died in the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, the World Health Organization said Monday. Nearly all cases have occurred in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. But the WHO reported three more cases in Nigeria Monday. One of them is a doctor in Lagos, who treated the first Nigerian case, the Associated Press reports. Lagos is African's most populous city with about 20 million people.