Aid worker expected to recover from Ebola

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb.

An American aid worker infected with Ebola who’s being treated in Nebraska is expected to make a full recovery, his doctors said Wednesday.

The medical team treating Rick Sacra also said it’s optimistic that the 51-year-old from Worcester, Mass., soon will be able to leave the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

“However, we are still somewhat cautious because of the severity and unknown factors of this disease,” said Dr. Angela Hewlett, associate medical director of the isolation unit housing Sacra, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia. “We know from experience how other patients look as their condition improves, but since we have so little experience treating patients with Ebola, that tempers our optimism a little bit.”

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is believed to have sickened nearly 5,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The deadly virus also has reached Nigeria and Senegal. It has killed at least 2,400 people.

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he will order 3,000 U.S. military personnel to West Africa to try to help stem the spread.