Health Officials Warn Of Ebola Crisis

(AP Photo/CDC, File)

Healthcare professionals in the United States are being told to be vigilant for someone who may have recently visited West Africa who might be sick. The region is dealing with the worst Ebola outbreak to date. But public health officials don’t think it’s likely the disease could spread widely here.

FOX News Radio’s Eben Brown reports:

Even the word ‘Ebola’ scares people…

(Dr. Frieden)?”It is frankly a dreadful and merciless virus, and the current outbreak is bad.”

Dr. Thomas Frieden at the Centers for Disease Control. The virus is responsible for hundreds of deaths in just the past weeks in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Frieden says in the U.S., doctors are being told to be on alert.

(Dr. Frieden)?”At the same time, we’re working on the other side of the equation in each of the three countries, to strengthen exit screening, so the likelihood of someone leaving who’s been exposed is lower.”

Eben Brown, FOX News Radio.

(AP Photo/Center for Disease Control)

Two U.S. medical professionals working as missionaries in Liberia to help curb the deadly spread of Ebola virus, and who became infected themselves, will remain in that country for at least another week despite their grave conditions.

FOX News Radio’s Eben Brown reports:

A church in Forth Worth, Texas prays for Dr. Kent Brantly, now fighting Ebola infection in a Liberian hospital…

(Churchgoer) “Father, God we thank you…”

Brantly, and another U.S. woman, Nancy Writebol, became infected while working to stop the outbreak that’s killed about?800 people so far in West Africa. Brantly’s colleagues from John Peter Smith Hospital are in disbelief…

(Colleague)?”It’s like a roller coaster of emotions. And we talk and laugh about him, and then we cry.”

And there’s been talk of transporting them on a special aircraft back to the U.S., and placing them in isolation. But that won’t happen until at least next week.

Eben Brown, FOX News Radio.