NFT: Are the US ready for Ebola?

"(CNN) -- It's not the type of plane Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol likely planned to take home.

But if health officials decide to evacuate the two American aid workers infected with Ebola in west Africa, it may be the plane they take.
U.S. government officials are in ongoing talks to bring Writebol and Brantly back from Liberia, an administration official and a State Department source said on Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has outfitted a Gulfstream jet with an isolation pod designed and built by the U.S. Defense Department, the CDC and a private company. The pod, officially called an Aeromedical Biological Containment System, is a portable, tentlike device that ensures the flight crew and others on the flight remain safe from an infectious disease.
"I don't know if evacuation is possible for Mom and Dad," Writebol's son, Jeremy Writebol, told CNN's "New Day." (Nancy Writebol's husband, David, is with her in Liberia, but is not infected with Ebola.) "I don't believe it is, but there's a team of doctors and medical staff that are committed to staying with Mom and Dad through the duration of this, and so we're very thankful for them and their commitment."

The CDC raised its travel warning for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone from Level 2 to Level 3 on Thursday, warning against any nonessential travel to the region. Since 2003, the agency has only issued Level 3 alerts on two occasions: during the outbreak of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, in 2003, and in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake."


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