Plane Carrying Third U.S. Missionary With Ebola Leaves Liberia

A plane carrying a third U.S. missionary infected with the Ebola virus
in Liberia left Monrovia on Thursday, and he will be taken to the
Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the Christian organization SIM USA
said.

A 51-year-old Boston physician,Dr. Rick Sacra,is the latest worker for
SIM USA to be infected with the virus that has killed more than 1,900
people.

The plane was expected to arrive in Omaha on Friday morning, and Sacra
will begin receiving treatment in the hospital's Biocontainment
Patient Care Unit, the organization said in a statement.

"Rick was receiving excellent care from our SIM/ELWA staff in Liberia
at our Ebola 2 Care Center," said President of SIM USA, Bruce Johnson.

"They all love and admire him deeply. However, the Nebraska Medical
Center provides advanced monitoring equipment and wider availability
of treatment options," Johnson said.

Liberian Information Minister, Lewis Brown, confirmed that the plane
carrying Sacra was identical to the Gulfstream jet that ferried Nancy
Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, who had contracted the disease in July
while working at the missionary group's health facilities in Liberia.

Sacra had volunteered to return to Liberia, where he has long offered
medical services, when the two other U.S. missionary health workers
were infected.

Writebol and Brantly have since recovered after being flown back to
the United States for treatment in an isolation unit at Emory
University Hospital in Atlanta.

Sacra had not been caring for Ebola patients but was delivering
babies, and had been following protocols to prevent the disease, the
group said.

It was not known how he contracted the disease.