The arrival of the first case has triggered anxiety in some quarters, with television personality Donald Trump arguing that the patients should be barred from returning to American soil/AFP
WASHINGTON, Aug 2 – The deadly Ebola virus landed on US soil for the first time on Saturday when a private jet carrying one of two American aid workers infected by the disease touched down in Georgia, television images showed.
A specially fitted jet carrying Kent Brantly, a doctor who was treating Ebola patients in Liberia, arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Base outside Atlanta, Georgia shortly before 11:50 am (1550 GMT) local time, WSB TV reported.
Footage of the arrival filmed from long-distance showed the jet pulling up at an aircraft hangar where it was met by an ambulance and several vehicles.
The convoy then appeared to pull away from the aircraft, headed for an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
The ambulance’s journey to hospital was also screened live on several networks. READ: US to screen people from Ebola-hit regions for Africa summit.
Brantly and Christian missionary worker Nancy Writebol are in serious but stable condition after becoming infected as they helped to battle the worst Ebola outbreak in history which has left more than 700 people dead in west Africa since March.
Both patients are being flown home on a Gulfstream private jet fitted with a collapsible, mobile isolation unit designed to transfer employees from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exposed to contagious diseases.
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