In this 2014 photo provided by the Samaritan’s Purse aid organization, Dr. Kent Brantly, left, treats an Ebola patient at the Samaritan’s Purse Ebola Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia. On Saturday, July 26, 2014, the North Carolina-based aid organization said Brantly tested positive for the disease and was being treated at a hospital in Monrovia. (AP Photo/Samaritan’s Purse)
An American doctor working in the African country of Liberia has tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus, an aid organization said Saturday.Â
Samaritan’s Purse, based in North Carolina, said in a statement that Dr. Kent Brantly was being treated at an isolation center in a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. Brantly is the medical director for the aid organization’s case management center in the city.
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Brantly, 33, has been working with Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia since October 2013 as part of the charity’s post-residency program for doctors, group spokeswoman Melissa Strickland told The Associated Press. The organization’s website says he had worked as a family practice physician in Fort Worth, Texas.
The highly contagious virus is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Photos of Brantly working in Liberia show him in white coveralls made of a synthetic material that he wore for hours a day while treating Ebola patients.
Brantly was quoted in a posting on the organization’s website earlier this year about efforts to maintain an isolation ward for patients.
“The hospital is taking great effort to be prepared,†Brantly said. “In past Ebola outbreaks, many of the casualties have been healthcare workers who contracted the disease through their work caring for infected individuals.â€
Strickland says that Brantly’s wife and two children had been living with him in Africa, but they are currently in the U.S.
“We ask everyone to please pray for him and his family,†the statement from Samaritan’s Purse concluded.
A woman who identified herself as Brantly’s mother told the AP family members are declining comment at this time.
The deadly disease has killed at least 672 in several African countries since the outbreak began earlier this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.