U.S. missionary doctor with Ebola said to be in good spirits

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Nancy Writebol, the SIM USA missionary who recovered from Ebola Virus Disease contracted in Liberia takes a moment to pray with her husband David, right, and Bruce Johnson, President with SIM USA, at a news conference on Sept. 3, 2014 in Charlotte, North Carolina. During the news conference, Johnson discussed the condition of American missionary doctor Rick Sacra. (Chris Keane/Getty Images)

By Lena H. Sun September 3 at 12:48 PM

Rick Sacra, the American missionary doctor who tested positive for Ebola on Monday in Liberia, is in good spirits and talking on the telephone and emailing with his wife in Boston regularly, SIM USA officials said Wednesday. But they cautioned that the disease is unpredictable.

“It’s very much up and down. You may feel good one day and the next day feel horrible,” said Bruce Johnson, president of the global missionary group. SIM officials said they could not offer any prognosis.

Sacra, the medical director of the organization’s ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, decided to return to Liberia after another SIM doctor and missionary became ill with Ebola, Johnson said. Sacra had been working in the hospital for about a month, most recently caring for obstetrics patients.

Johnson said that the organization is “exploring all opportunities and options,” including possible transportation back to the United States. Sacra, 51, started to develop a fever Friday and through the weekend, Johnson said. Sacra isolated himself, and on Monday, after an Ebola test came back positive, the doctor moved himself into the hospital’s isolation unit, which is separate from the main hospital. He is being well cared for by the hospital’s doctors and nurses, many of whom he trained, Johnson said.

Johnson said he had spoken with Sacra’s wife and that she was “holding up very well.” He added: “They knew the risks going in, and they also knew the protocols that were in place, and Rick was following those.” They were aware of the possibility that he could contract Ebola, Johnson said.

He said Sacra is a veteran doctor with the organization and that the couple joined in the late 1980s, and have served in Liberia, where he was previously its Liberia country director.

The doctor is the fourth American to be diagnosed with the hemorrhagic disease that has killed more than half the people who have become infected during this epidemic. Another doctor, Kent Brantly, and a missionary volunteer, Nancy Writebol, who also were working at ELWA Hospital, were treated with an experimental medication and brought back to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where both recovered. A Liberian American man, Patrick Sawyer, died in July after traveling to Nigeria.

Lena H. Sun is a national reporter for The Washington Post, focusing on health.

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