American doctor with Ebola shows improvement, still ‘very sick’

An Ebola-infected American doctor receiving treatment in Nebraska has shown some improvement but is still “very sick,” his wife said in a statement.

Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, an obstetrician who lives in the Boston area, contracted the deadly virus while treating patients in Liberia as part of a missionary program. He was flown to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha on Friday for emergency treatment.

“Rick is very sick and weak, but slightly improved from when he arrived yesterday,” his wife, Debbie Sacra, said in a statement released Saturday night by SIM USA, the missionary group to which Rick Sacra belongs. “He asked for something to eat and had a little chicken soup.”

The missionary group said Debbie Sacra and son Maxwell, 22, spoke with Rick Sacra for 25 minutes over a video link connected to the biocontainment unit where he has been isolated in the hospital.

Debbie Sacra said that she was “relieved to see his face and hear his voice again” and that he did not remember much from Friday. She and her husband want to keep the media focus on the African countries ravaged by the disease, she said in the statement.

“We don’t want this story to be about Rick,” she said. “The story is the crisis in West Africa. That is what is most important. The world is coming to this fight late.”

This year’s Ebola outbreak is the worst on record, killing about 2,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. It has had had a fatality rate of 53%, the WHO said.

The virus, which causes hemorrhaging, spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of infected patients. The latest outbreak was first detected in Guinea in March and has since affected Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal, where at least one patient has been identified.

Rick Sacra is the third American to be transported to the U.S. this year for treatment after contracting the virus.

Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, who were also missionaries providing medical care in Liberia, recovered after treatment at a special infectious-disease unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Medical experts say an Ebola outbreak would be unlikely to spread in the U.S.

Staff writer Alexandra Zavis contributed to this report.

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