American doctor who contracted Ebola to be released from hospital

An American doctor who contracted Ebola while treating Liberian patients infected with the deadly disease will be released from an Atlanta hospital on Thursday, according to the organization he was affiliated with while working in Liberia.Kent Brantly appeared near death weeks ago after contracting the disease, which has killed 1,350 people in the four African nations affected by the contagion. He was flown back to the United States from Liberia in a special transport plane that included an isolation unit. Brantly received an experimental Ebola treatment called ZMapp, which appeared to greatly help his recovery.

Brantly traveled to Liberia as part of an aid mission with a group called Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian organization that has treated numerous Ebola patients in Liberia. The organization currently has 350 staff members in Liberia, many of them working to battle the growing Ebola outbreak there, the group said.

“Today I join all of our Samaritan’s Purse team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr. Kent Brantly’s recovery from Ebola and release from the hospital,” said Samaritan Purse president Franklin Graham, in a statement on Thursday. “Over the past few weeks I have marveled at Dr. Brantly’s courageous spirit as he has fought this horrible virus with the help of the highly competent and caring staff at Emory University Hospital.”

Another Christian aid worker, Nancy Writebol, worked with Brantly in Liberia and was also infected with Ebola. She also received ZMapp and was brought back to the U.S. for treatment at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. NBC News reported she “will be discharged from the hospital’s isolation unit but it was not immediately clear whether she would also leave the facility.”

A spokeswoman for Emory told The Post in an email that no further details would be released “about either patient” until a Thursday news conference, where Bruce Ribner, medical director of Emory’s Infectious Disease Unit, “will discuss the discharge of both patients from the hospital.”

Brantly is also expected to speak at the 11 a.m. news conference before returning home.

“Thank you for your prayers,” he wrote in a statement last week. “Please continue to pray for and bring attention to those suffering in the ongoing Ebola crisis in West Africa. Their fight is far from over.”

Writebol’s husband, who was also in Liberia, reunited with her earlier this week after he completed a 21-day observation period. “It has been three weeks since Nancy and I learned of her infection with the Ebola virus,” he said in a statement. “In the ensuing days, we learned much more about the disease than we already knew.”