US doctor infected with Ebola arrives in Nebraska

A U.S. doctor who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, and is the third American to be infected with the virus, arrived Friday for treatment at a Nebraska hospital.

Officials at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha have said Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, would begin treatment in the hospital's 10-bed special isolation unit, the largest of four such units in the United States.

Sacra, who is from the Boston area, had opted to head to Liberia after learning that two other missionaries were sick. He served with the North Carolina-based charity SIM. Sacra was not involved in the treatment of Ebola patients, but delivered babies. It is unclear how he became infected with the virus – which has killed about 1,900 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea – and might have infected 20,000 more.

The affected countries have seen their health care systems stretched to the breaking point, and aid organizations have raised alarm over the rapid escalation of the epidemic. The United Nations estimates that it will take $600 million to contain the disease. The World Health Organization estimates that in the three hardest-hit countries only one to two doctors are available to treat 100,000 people. Trade and travel restrictions have further plunged the fragile economies into distress.

Due to the virus’ rapid spread, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Thursday pledged an additional $75 million to the fight against Ebola in West Africa. The agency plans to use the money to set up Ebola clinics with up to 1,000 beds, and to help recruit hundreds of U.S. medical personnel to staff them and deliver medical equipment and fill other needs, Raj Shah, USAID administrator, told The Wall Street Journal.

USAID's total contribution to the fight against Ebola, which with the new pledge would total nearly $100 million, would be one of the agency's higher-profile disaster responses in recent years.

So far there are no licensed drugs or vaccines for the disease, but about a half-dozen are in development. None have been tested in humans, but an early trial of one vaccine began this week in the U.S.

Much attention has focused on the drug ZMapp, which was given to seven patients, two of whom died. But the limited supply of the drug is now exhausted, and its developer says it will take months to make even a modest amount.

The first two American aid workers infected by Ebola — Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol — have recovered since being flown to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment.

Smith and several other doctors with the unit repeatedly said Sacra's transfer to Omaha posed no threat to the public, noting Ebola is not airborne and is transmitted through fluids.

He said Sacra had been in stable condition in Liberia and was able to board the plane to the U.S. under his own power, but added, "He has a long plane ride ahead of him."

Sacra's wife, Debbie, said at a news conference at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester that her husband was in good spirits as he boarded the plane Thursday. She said the couple had known there was a risk of him getting infected with Ebola when he left for Liberia in August.

"I knew he needed to be with the Liberian people," she said. "He was so concerned about the children that were going to die from malaria without hospitalization and the women who had no place to go to deliver their babies by cesarean section. He's not someone who can stand back if there's a need he can take care of."

Al Jazeera and wire services