American Doctor with Ebola Lands in Georgia

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(ATLANTA) — A plane carrying an American doctor who contracted Ebola while treating patients in West Africa landed at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia, on Saturday.

Samaritan’s Purse confirmed that Dr. Kent Brantly was the first American patient to be evacuated from Liberia aboard a private air ambulance. The flight landed about 11 a.m. Saturday.

After arriving, Brantly was taken by ambulance to a special entrance at Emory University Hospital where he was able to walk into hospital while wearing full protective gear to stop the virus from spreading. Another person also wearing full protective gear, helped support the doctor as he walked into the hospital.

Brantly and Nancy Writebol, an aid worker, will be treated at a specialized unit at Emory University in Atlanta.

Both Brantly and Writebol are listed in “serious but stable condition,” according to Samaritan’s Purse, the aid group Brantly for which worked. Writebol is expected to arrive in the U.S. early next week.

Brantly and Writebol worked at a hospital in Liberia. He’s the first patient infected with Ebola to be on U.S. soil.

While Ebola is a highly fatal disease, an outbreak of the virus is incredibly unlikely within the U.S. The containment units Brantly and Writebol will be treated in are designed to isolate infected patients and protect health workers and the public from the disease.

The director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Tom Frieden, told ABC News the isolation unit was one of only four in the nation.

Ebola does not easily spread from person to person. The virus is transmitted through bodily secretions, including blood and urine, or through contaminated surfaces. As a result, the group most at risk is medical staff.

More than 700 people have died after contracting Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea since cases were first reported in March, according to the World Health Organization.

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