The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the US is fighting for his life in hospital and does not seem to have been given any experimental medicines used to treat previous patients. 
 
 American doctors and aid workers have survived the disease after being given the drug ZMapp, although it is impossible to tell whether it cured them or their recovery was caused by other factors, but Thomas Duncan has not received it. 
 
 He became ill after arriving in Texas from Liberia two weeks ago, heightening fears that the deadly virus could spread from West Africa, where the epidemic started in March and has since killed more than 3,400 people. 
 
 Dr Thomas Frieden, director of America's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told CNN Mr Duncan was "fighting for his life" at a hospital in Dallas, Texas. 
 
 He said doses of ZMapp were “all gone” and that the drug, produced by US-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, is “not going to be available anytime soon.” 
 
 A second experimental drug, made by Canada's Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp, “can be quite difficult for patients to take,” he said, adding that the doctor and the patient's family would decide whether to use it. 
 
 “As far as we understand, experimental medicine is not being used,” Dr Frieden said. “It's really up to his treating physicians, himself, his family what treatment to take.” 
 
 A hazmat team member arrives to clean a unit at the Ivy Apartments, where the Mr Duncan was staying 
 
 He added that it was "concerning" that doctors at the hospital he visited days before being admitted failed to diagnose Ebola, instead sending him home with antibiotics. 
 
 The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas confirmed that Mr Duncan was in a critical condition on Monday as the operation to trace anyone who may have had contact with him continues. 
 
 None of the 38 people being monitored have yet shown any symptoms, which are similar to a cold or flu in the early stages before Ebola develops into vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding. 
 
 Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva and an expert said the chance of it spreading in the US were small. 
 
 In pictures: Ebola virus 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 62 show all In pictures: Ebola virus 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1/62 Ebola virus A health worker from Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 carries the corpse of a child in Freetown 
 
 2/62 Ebola virus A health workers from the Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 is sprayed with desinfectant after removing a corpse from a house in Freetown 
 
 3/62 Ebola virus Health workers from Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 prepare to remove a body from a house in Freetown AFP 
 
 4/62 Ebola virus Health workers from the Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 place a body in a grave at King Tom cemetary in Freetown 
 
 5/62 Ebola virus Mustapha Rogers of the Red Cross talks as health workers from the Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 remove a corpse from a house in Freetown 
 
 6/62 Ebola virus A citizen from Mali arrives at a hospital in Murcia city, south-eastern Spain. The protocol for a possible case of Ebola has been activated as the man, who arrived from Mali to Jumilla town in Murcia province five days ago, presents clinical symptoms of high fever and vomiting EPA 
 
 7/62 Ebola virus Kenyan medical workers show how to handle an infected Ebola patient on a portable negative pressure bed at the Kenyatta national hospital in Nairobi Getty Images 
 
 8/62 Ebola virus A health worker sprays disinfectant onto a college in Monrovia, Liberia AP 
 
 9/62 Ebola virus A burial team in protective gear bury the body of a woman suspected to have died from Ebola virus in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 10/62 Ebola virus Healthcare workers in protective gear work at an Ebola treatment center in the west of Freetown, Sierra Leone AP Photo/Michael Duff 
 
 11/62 Ebola virus A healthcare worker in protective gear is sprayed with disinfectant after working in an Ebola treatment center in the west of Freetown, Sierra Leone 
 
 12/62 Ebola virus A member of the NGO U Fondation leaves a house after visiting quarantined family members suffering from the Ebola virus in Monrovia 
 
 13/62 Ebola virus An Ebola sign placed infront of a home in West Point slum area of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 14/62 Ebola virus A Liberian man carries his sick brother suspected of having Ebola after being delayed admission to the Island Clinic Ebola Treatment Unit due to a lack of beds at the clinic on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 15/62 Ebola virus Health workers remove the body a woman who died from the Ebola virus in the Aberdeen district of Freetown, Sierra Leone 
 
 16/62 Ebola virus A health worker fixes another health worker's protective suit in the Aberdeen district of Freetown, Sierra Leone 
 
 17/62 Ebola virus Health workers spray themselves with chlorine disinfectants after removing the body a woman who died of Ebola virus in the Aberdeen district of Freetown, Sierra Leone 
 
 18/62 Ebola virus A woman crawls towards the body of her sister as Ebola burial team members take her sister Mekie Nagbe (28) for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 19/62 Ebola virus Sophia Doe sits with her grandchildren Beauty Mandi, 9 months (L) and Arthuneh Qunoh, 9, (R), while watching the arrival an Ebola burial team to take away the body of her daughter Mekie Nagbe, 28, for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 20/62 Ebola virus Varney Jonson (46) grieves as an Ebola burial team takes away the body of his wife Nama Fambule for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 21/62 Ebola virus Family members grieve as Ebola burial team members prepare to remove the body of Nama Fambule for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 22/62 Ebola virus A Liberian burial squad carry the body of an Ebola victim in Marshall, Margini county, Liberia 
 
 23/62 Ebola virus An Ebola burial team dresses in protective clothing before collecting the body of a woman (54) from her home in the New Kru Town suburb of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 24/62 Ebola virus An Ebola burial team carries the body of a woman (54) through the New Kru Town suburb of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 25/62 Ebola virus An Ebola burial team dresses in protective clothing before collecting the body of a woman (54) from her home in the New Kru Town suburb of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 26/62 Ebola virus Health workers in protective gear carry the body of a woman suspected to have died from Ebola virus, from a house in New Kru Town at the outskirt of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 27/62 Ebola virus Volunteers in protective suit bury the body of a person who died from Ebola in Waterloo, some 30 kilometers southeast of Freetown FLORIAN PLAUCHEUR/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 28/62 Ebola virus Nowa Paye (9) is taken to an ambulance after showing signs of the Ebola infection in the village of Freeman Reserve, about 30 miles north of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 29/62 Ebola virus Medical staff members burn clothes belonging to patients suffering from Ebola, at the French medical NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Monrovia PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 30/62 Ebola virus A medical staff member wearing a protective suit walks past the crematorium where victims of Ebola are burned in Monrovia 
 
 31/62 Ebola virus A Liberian burial team wearing protective clothing loads the body of a 60-year-old Ebola victim after retrieving him from his home Getty Images 
 
 32/62 Ebola virus Sick women rest while hoping to enter the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment center near Monrovia, Liberia Getty Images 
 
 33/62 Ebola virus Hanah Siafa walks in the rain with her children Josephine, 10, and Elija, six, while waiting to enter the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia Getty Images 
 
 34/62 Ebola virus UNICEF health workers walk through the streets, going house to house to speak about Ebola prevention in New Kru Town, Liberia. The virus has killed more than 1,000 people in four African countries Getty Images 
 
 35/62 Ebola virus Local residents watch as public health advocates stage an Ebola awareness and prevention event in Monrovia, Liberia Getty Images 
 
 36/62 Ebola virus Public health advocates stage an Ebola awareness and prevention event in Monrovia, Liberia. The Liberian government and international groups are trying to convince residents of the danger and are urging people to wash their hands to help prevent the spread of the epidemic Getty Images 
 
 37/62 Ebola virus Hanah Siafa lies with her children Josephine, 10, and Elija, six, while hoping to enter the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment center Getty Images 
 
 38/62 Ebola virus A health worker examines patients for Ebola inside a screening tent, at the Kenema Government Hospital AP 
 
 39/62 Ebola virus A health worker cleans his hands with chlorinated water before entering an Ebola screening tent at the Kenema Government Hospital, about 86 miles from Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown AP 
 
 40/62 Ebola virus Aid workers and doctors transfer Miguel Pajares, a Spanish priest who was infected with the Ebola virus while working in Liberia, from a plane to an ambulance as he leaves the Torrejon de Ardoz military airbase, near Madrid, Spain AP Photo/Spanish Defense Ministry 
 
 41/62 Ebola virus A Liberian money exchanger washes hands between customers as a precaution to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus while conducting business in downtown Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 42/62 Ebola virus A Liberian health worker sprays disinfectant on a drivers boots to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus at the Christian charity Samaritan Purse head offices in Monrovia, Liberia. Over 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa in 2014 making it the world's deadliest outbreak to date according to statistics from the World Health Organisation EPA 
 
 43/62 Ebola virus A Liberian taxi driver wears protective gloves as a precaution to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus whilst driving in downtown Monrovia, Liberia. Many Liberians have taken to wearing gloves and washing hands after every interaction in an attempt to curb the spread of the deadly virus EPA 
 
 44/62 Ebola virus A Liberian money exchanger wears protective gloves as a precaution to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus while transacting business with customers in downtown Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 45/62 Ebola virus A woman from Liberia takes food to a sick relative in the Ebola isolation unit at the ELWA Hospital where US doctor Kent Bradley is being quarantined having contracted the Ebola virus. Over 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa in 2014 making it the world's deadliest outbreak to date according to statistics from the World Health Organisation EPA 
 
 46/62 Ebola virus The disease has now spread to Liberia and, for the first time, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, killing at least 672 people in 1,201 cases, according to the World Health Organisation’s latest figures AP 
 
 47/62 Ebola virus Health specialists prepare for work in an isolation ward for patients at the Medecins Sans Frontieres facility in southern Guinea AFP/Getty Images 
 
 48/62 Ebola virus A Liberian street vendor wears protective gloves as a precaution to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus while transacting business with customers in downtown Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 49/62 Ebola virus A nurse from Liberia sprays preventives to disinfect the waiting area for visitors at the ELWA Hospital where a US doctor Kent Bradley is being quarantined in the hospitals isolation unit having contracted the Ebola virus, Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 50/62 Ebola virus Staff of the 'Doctors without Borders' ('Medecin sans frontieres') medical aid organisation carry the body of a person killed by the virus 
 
 51/62 Ebola virus A Liberia man (right) talks to a nurse (left) about the health of his relative who is in the isolation unit of the ELWA Hospital where a US doctor Kent Bradley is being quarantined having contracted the Ebola virus, Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 52/62 Ebola virus A nurse from Liberia walks to spray preventives to disinfect the waiting area for visitors at the ELWA Hospital where a US doctor Kent Bradley is being quarantined in the hospitals isolation unit having contracted the Ebola virus EPA 
 
 53/62 Ebola virus Staff of the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse put on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia AFP 
 
 54/62 Ebola virus Lagos State Health Commissioner Jide Idris, speaks, during a news conference in Lagos, Nigeria. No one knows for sure just how many people Patrick Sawyer came into contact with the day he boarded a flight in Liberia, had a stopover in Ghana, changed planes in Togo, and then arrived in Nigeria, where authorities say he died days later from Ebola AP Photo/Sunday Alamba 
 
 55/62 Ebola virus Staff of the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse put on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa's Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan's Purse said AP 
 
 56/62 Ebola virus Protective gear including boots, gloves, masks and suits, drying after being used in a treatment room in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia AFP 
 
 57/62 Ebola virus A Liberian man holding a Civet being sold on a roadside as bush meat in Lofa County. Bush meat is one of the major carriers of the Ebola virus. The Liberian government and International partners have warned people to not eat it. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that a total of 888 Ebola cases including 539 deaths have been recorded in West Africa since February AFP 
 
 58/62 Ebola virus People unload protection and healthcare material at Conakry's airport, to help fight the spread of the Ebola virus and treat people who have been already infected AFP/Getty Images 
 
 59/62 Ebola virus Body of evidence: health workers transport a casket of a nun whose death resulted from an Ebola infection in Zaire in 1995 Getty 
 
 60/62 Ebola virus Peter Piot in Yambuku, northern Congo (then Zaire), in 1976, where he was part of the original team to discover the Ebola virus J Breman 
 
 61/62 Ebola virus A member of Doctors Without Borders helps to unload protection and healthcare materials in Guinea Getty 
 
 62/62 Ebola virus Doctors in protective gear work inside the Medecins Sans Frontieres isolation ward as Guinea faced the worst ever outbreak of the Ebola virus Getty Images 
 
 Dr Edward Wright, a virology expert at the University of Westminster who is currently testing a possible Ebola vaccine in Oxford, told The Independent that because Mr Duncan was not showing symptoms until shortly before he went into hospital, he was not a high risk. 
 
 “The reason the virus is causing such a problem in West Africa is because the world was notified too late to provide the medical infrastructure needed to stop the spread, but in the US and Europe it’s already in place," he added. 
 
 In Nebraska, another hospital was preparing for the arrival of an Ebola patient who contracted the virus in Liberia. 
 
 The American man, expected to arrive on Monday, has not been officially identified but is believed to be Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman for NBC News who contracted Ebola in Liberia. 
 
 Additional reporting by Reuters ||||| CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Dr. Kent Brantly arrived in Atlanta Saturday afternoon as the first of two patients with Ebola to be treated at Emory University hospital. VPC 
 
 Kent Brantly works at an Ebola treatment clinic in Foya, Liberia, on June 23. (Photo: Samaritan's Purse) 
 
 A second American stricken with the Ebola virus is expected to return to the USA Tuesday, three days after a doctor being treated for the disease arrived at an Atlanta hospital for intensive care. 
 
 Nancy Writebol, a medical missionary aiding in the treatment of Ebola victims in Liberia, is scheduled to leave that African nation around 1 a.m. Tuesday on a specially equipped medical evacuation plane, Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown said, according to the Associated Press. 
 
 Kent Brantly, the American doctor transported to Atlanta Saturday, "seems to be improving," the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday. 
 
 Brantly is being treated in a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after arriving Saturday at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia. It's the first time anyone infected with the deadly virus has been brought into the country. 
 
 "We're hoping he'll continue to improve," Dr. Tom Frieden told CBS' Face the Nation. "But Ebola is such a scary disease because it's so deadly. I can't predict the future for individual patients." 
 
 Brantly and Writebol were serving in Liberia as medical missionaries when they became infected with the virus, which has killed 729 people and sickened more than 1,300 the West African nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. 
 
 Frieden has said his agency received "nasty" e-mails and at least 100 calls from people questioning why the sick aid workers should be let into the USA. Physicians are confident, however, that the two Americans can be treated without putting the public in danger. 
 
 (Photo: AP) 
 
 The virus is spread through direct contact with blood, urine, saliva and other bodily fluids from an infected person. It is not spread through the air. 
 
 "I don't think it's in the cards that we would have widespread Ebola," Frieden said. He said the virus spreads in African hospitals where there isn't infection control and in burial rituals where people touch the bodies of Ebola victims. That won't happen here, he said. 
 
 "So it's not going to spread widely in the U.S. Could we have another person here, could we have a case or two? Not impossible," Frieden said. "We say in medicine never say never. But we know how to stop it here. But to really protect ourselves, the single most important thing we can do is stop it at the source in Africa. That's going to protect them and protect us." 
 
 Emory's infectious diseases unit was created 12 years ago to handle doctors who get sick at the CDC. It is one of about four in the country equipped with everything necessary to test, treat and contain people exposed to very dangerous viruses. 
 
 In 2005, it handled patients with severe acute respiratory syndromeSARS, which unlike Ebola can spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes. 
 
 In fact, the nature of Ebola — which is spread by close contact with bodily fluids and blood — means that any modern hospital using standard, rigorous infection-control measures should be able to handle it. 
 
 On Saturday, Amber Brantly expressed her happiness in having her husband back in the USA. 
 
 "It was a relief to welcome Kent home today," she said in a statement. "I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S. I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital." 
 
 (Photo: Service in Mission) 
 
 Brantly, 33, of Fort Worth, had been working in Liberia for Samaritan's Purse overseeing an Ebola treatment center. Writebol, of Charlotte, was working at the center on behalf of the faith group Service in Mission. Samaritan's Purse is paying for their evacuation and medical care. 
 
 There's no specific treatment for Ebola so doctors try to ease symptoms, including fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhea. Some victims suffer severe bleeding. 
 
 Michael Stulman, a regional information officer in West and Central Africa for Catholic Relief Services, said Sunday that doctors and nurses there "are working in a particularly high-risk environment. They are typically are under-resourced. They're working 15- and even 20-hour days. Despite all their incredible efforts, sometimes mistakes happen and this is why we're seeing a fairly high number of Ebola-positive cases with nurses." 
 
 Treatment centers "are reaching full capacity soon after they are set up," he said in an e-mail. "Some of the observation units are not fully staffed. The cross-border nature of the outbreak and the accessibility of transport to major towns have made this outbreak particularly difficult to contain." 
 
 Among the main challenges in containing the outbreak, he said, were several circulating myths, including one that said doctors at hospitals "will give you injections that kill you" instead of treating the illness. "As a result of these myths, some families who have sought care are discharging confirmed patients from the hospital and bringing them home before they are recovered. Other people who have Ebola never go to the hospital and instead choose to stay at home with their family, which puts their family at risk of contracting the disease when caring for them." 
 
 Contributing: WXIA-TV in Atlanta; Doug Stanglin; the Associated Press 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1ngxCSh ||||| While local and international efforts have significantly slowed the spread of Ebola in West Africa, AmeriCares continues to support treatment of Ebola patients and protect health workers on the front lines of the epidemic. In Liberia, AmeriCares is now focused on rebuilding and strengthening the health system to improve access to health care and help prevent future epidemics. 
 
 Since the world’s largest Ebola outbreak began in early 2014, the virus has killed more than 11,100 people and infected more than 26,900. The disease has had a huge impact on health workers, infecting 869 and killing 507, including many doctors and nurses. The loss of so many health workers has been devastating to the region’s health care systems, which were already under-resourced and under-staffed, leaving people with malaria, typhoid, complicated childbirth and other illnesses without access to even basic care. 
 
 From the Beginning 
 
 AmeriCares first responded to the outbreak in April of 2014, with a focus on protecting health workers, expanding Ebola treatment capacity and restoring and improving health services. 
 
 Within a year, AmeriCares had provided millions of critical protective supplies to more than 100 health facilities in the three most-affected countries, recruited medical staff for and supplied Ebola treatment units in Liberia, and begun a long-term response to the on-going health crisis in West Africa, including infection prevention and control training for health workers. 
 
 Even as the epidemic ebbs, health workers in all three countries need critical support, including medicine, protective equipment and training. 
 
 “As our work to completely contain Ebola continues in West Africa, there is an ongoing need for safety equipment along with prevention and treatment supplies,” said AmeriCares Vice President of Emergency Response Garrett Ingoglia, “Support for frontline health workers is critical in controlling the epidemic and strengthening the health care system going forward.” 
 
 Brian Hoyer and Kla Williams – two of our team at Buchanan 
 
 Programs and Plans in Three Countries 
 
 In Liberia, AmeriCares established an office and warehouse in the capital city of Monrovia to efficiently distribute supplies to health facilities. AmeriCares Liberia team also manages our longer term commitment to build the capacity of the health care system to meet future health crises. 
 
 At the height of the outbreak in September of 2014, AmeriCares recruited all of the physicians and nurses needed to staff the Ebola treatment unit (ETU) built by the U.S. Department of Defense in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, as part of a partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and funded by USAID. AmeriCares managed the facility and its staff of more than 180 health workers; the team revised safety protocols and maintained a constant state of readiness to isolate and treat Ebola patients, from construction at the height of the health emergency through the treatment center’s decommission after the outbreak had greatly diminished. In addition, AmeriCares provided all medical supplies needed to treat Ebola patients and protect staff at two other Ebola treatment centers managed by IOM in Liberia. 
 
 Under direction of AmeriCares staff, health workers at the Buchanan ETU staff also provided other important health services to local communities. Doctors and health workers established mobile clinics that delivered care to families in isolated areas, a measles vaccination program, psychosocial support for schools, and important infection prevention and control training for health workers, teachers and other school personnel. 
 
 As part of a longer term program to strengthen an already under-resourced health system weakened by years of civil war and devastated by Ebola, AmeriCares has begun an 18-month project to increase access and improve health services for mothers and newborns in Grand Bassa County. The work includes health facility upgrades, medical equipment and staff training at three health facilities – one hospital and two clinics. 
 
 In Sierra Leone, we continue to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) to caregivers in interim care centers for children who have been exposed to Ebola and require temporary care outside the home for 21 days – some of whom have parents who are ill or have died from the disease. AmeriCares also provides reunification kits for these children when they leave the care centers that include food, clothing and personal care supplies to replace lost items and help ease a child’s transition back into the community. 
 
 AmeriCares has also committed to providing 12 months of infection prevention and control training in Bonthe District for all health workers at Mattru Hospital and Bonthe Government Hospital. This health worker and patient-safety intervention will contribute to long-term health system strengthening that will prepare Sierra Leone for future infectious disease outbreaks. 
 
 In Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak began in early 2014, AmeriCares continues to provide our partners with medical equipment and supplies. Our largest shipment to date – 40,000 lbs. of PPE – will be distributed to more than 180 health facilities. The shipment also contains more than 15,000 liters of bleach which will support ChildFund International, our partner in Guinea, working with health clinics, health posts and community health workers to maintain infection prevention and control standards and to rebuild community trust in the health care system. 
 
 Three Ebola survivors from one community. 
 
 Ongoing Shipments 
 
 With the support of our corporate partners and donors, 47 shipments of medical aid have been delivered to more than 100 partners in West Africa to treat Ebola patients, provide protective gear for health workers and prevent further infections. To date, we have shipped over 7 million units of medicine and medical supplies, including 3.3 million units of protective equipment and 227,543 course treatments of medicine to partners in West Africa. 
 
 Through our partnership with Cardinal Health, for example, we have sent multiple shipments of protective supplies, including surgical gloves, masks and isolation gowns, to the affected area with more shipments planned. In addition, AmeriCares has sent multiple shipments of Clorox®Regular-Bleach to our partners in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Chlorine solutions made with bleach are essential for hand washing and preventing and controlling infection at local health centers. 
 
 Early Response to the Crisis 
 
 AmeriCares first response to the outbreak in April 2014 included the purchase and distribution of protective gear and medical supplies for health workers in West Africa as well as support for public messaging campaigns to spread awareness about the disease for which there is no proven cure. Overall, confirmed cases and fatalities have been reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Mali. Cases have also been reported in the U.S., Spain, Senegal and the United Kingdom. 
 
 Read the story of a tiny survivor and her treatment ||||| Workers at an Ebola treatment center relax Jan. 10, 2015 in Tubmanburg, Liberia. The facility was built by the U.S. military. (Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post) 
 
 Near the hillside shelter where dozens of men and women died of Ebola, a row of green U.S. military tents sit atop a vast expanse of imported gravel. The generators hum; chlorinated water churns in brand-new containers; surveillance cameras send a live feed to a large-screen television. 
 
 There’s only one thing missing from this state-of-the-art Ebola treatment center: Ebola patients. 
 
 The U.S. military sent about 3,000 troops to West Africa to build centers like this one in recent months. They were intended as a crucial safeguard against an epidemic that flared in unpredictable, deadly waves. But as the outbreak fades in Liberia, it has become clear that the disease had already drastically subsided before the first American centers were completed. Several of the U.S.-built units haven’t seen a single patient infected with Ebola. 
 
 It now appears that the alarming epidemiological predictions that in large part prompted the U.S. aid effort here were far too bleak. Although future flare-ups of the disease are possible, the near-empty Ebola centers tell the story of an aggressive American military and civilian response that occurred too late to help the bulk of the more than 8,300 Liberians who became infected. Last week, even as international aid organizations built yet more Ebola centers, there was an average of less than one new case reported in Liberia per day. 
 
 “If they had been built when we needed them, it wouldn’t have been too much,” said Moses Massaquoi, the Liberian government’s chairman for Ebola case management. “But they were too late.” 
 
 It was impossible to predict the decline in the Ebola caseload last September, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested a worst-case scenario of 1.4 million victims in West Africa. At that point, the American military’s logistical and engineering prowess appeared to be urgently needed — even if critics said the assistance was slow to arrive. 
 
 “With that kind of dire prediction from the CDC, and not having seen anything like this before, we had to try everything at our disposal,” said Douglas Mercado, the top USAID official in Liberia. 
 
 U.S. officials reject the suggestion that resources were misallocated. 
 
 “A lot of people are evaluating the strategy based on what we know today, not what we knew at the time,” said Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, the top U.S. military officer in Liberia. 
 
 Before the center opened in Tubmanburg on Nov. 18, there were about 200 suspected or confirmed Ebola victims in the town, many of whom died while awaiting treatment. Since the U.S. facility opened, 46 suspected or confirmed cases have been admitted. 
 
 In Monrovia, 45 miles away and the heart of the outbreak, the scenes of suffering Ebola patients shocked the world. At the height of the epidemic, the afflicted writhed in the streets. There was a shortage of bed space at treatment centers for months. The international community, led by the United States, responded with a massive construction and assistance campaign — including American engineers, Cuban doctors, African Union health workers and many others — that turned out to be far in excess of what was necessary. 
 
 There are now seven Ebola treatment centers in greater Monrovia. Most of them were completed after the epidemic began to abate. Surplus tents now store excess supplies: mattresses, food and medicine for patients who never arrived. There are so few patients and so many available beds that a USAID-funded Ebola center, opened in October, will soon close its doors. Three other centers will be shuttered at least temporarily. 
 
 Paradoxically, isolation centers are still being built, mostly by UNICEF. 
 
 “It just makes no sense,” said Laurence Sailly, the head of mission for the Doctors Without Borders aid group in Liberia. 
 
 Help arrives, belatedly 
 
 Amelia Garbla remembers when she saw the first American aircraft land in Tubmanburg. It was late September, and she was a nurse at the local holding center — little more than plastic sheeting and dirty mattresses — where Ebola patients were dying constantly. 
 
 “I was jumping up and down and waving. I was so happy,” she said. 
 
 About two weeks earlier, on Sept. 16, President Obama announced that 3,000 U.S. troops would be dispatched to West Africa as part of a $750 million plan to fight Ebola. 
 
 “We know that if we take the proper steps, we can save lives,” Obama said. “But we have to act fast.” 
 
 The news of Obama’s plan had made it to Garbla’s makeshift treatment center, with its tiny shed for nurses to don their protective gear. The situation was desperate. 
 
 “There was nothing we could do. The things we should have had, we didn’t have,” she said. 
 
 Through September and October, Garbla was surrounded by the dead and the dying, including 14 of her colleagues — health-care workers from this small city who fought the disease with almost no outside help. She saw the American helicopters and the white men in uniform surveying the land. She watched as they unloaded equipment and construction materials. 
 
 “We were praying for something to be built,” she said. 
 
 But while the Americans were finishing the Tubmanburg Ebola center, their first in Liberia, the national caseload suddenly began to decline. By the time the treatment unit opened in November, the country was down to fewer than 100 cases per week, from a peak of more than 300. By December, the number had dropped to fewer than 30 cases per week. 
 
 The reasons for the sudden plunge are still being debated. Was it that Liberians had changed their behavior to avoid contracting the disease? Had early increases in bed space at Ebola centers been enough to isolate those with the virus? Was there more effective use of contact tracers, who tracked down and isolated people exposed to the virus? Experts say it was probably all of those changes, though the inflection point of the epidemic will be studied for years by epidemiologists. 
 
 “I don’t think you can point to one silver bullet that solved Ebola,” Volesky said. “My argument is it’s the whole strategy that’s showing us a positive trend.” 
 
 On a scorching day in late October, the U.S. ambassador came to tour the nearly completed Tubmanburg center. Members of the Liberian army, who helped with construction, chanted as the dignitaries walked through the new tents. 
 
 When the center began accepting patients on Nov. 20, Garbla and her colleagues were glad to have a modern, functional Ebola treatment unit, even if it appeared that the epidemic was fading. Now, if the cases spiked again, she and her colleagues would be ready. 
 
 The U.S. plans for the Ebola centers have changed in some ways to reflect the new reality. In a number of cases, aid groups contracted to operate the centers have diverted their staff members to work in general hospitals that were ravaged by Ebola. Some training sessions intended for nurses and hygienists at the Ebola centers have been altered to cover a broader range of infection-control measures. 
 
 As the disease continued to fade, U.S. officials had to decide whether to scrap their plans to build a total of 17 Ebola centers. In the end, they cut only two of the units. Their judgment appeared to be validated in December, when an isolated outbreak emerged in the county of Grand Cape Mount — where, luckily, a U.S.-built Ebola center had just been completed. 
 
 “Even when it started going down, no one was declaring victory and saying we beat this thing,” Volesky said. “Because it only takes one person walking from Guinea into Lofa,” a county in Liberia. 
 
 ‘We have to build it’ 
 
 Still, there’s no question that the need is less than anticipated. For its part, UNICEF has continued building Ebola isolation centers, even though many here argue that they serve no purpose anymore. 
 
 “Halting construction now would cause much bigger problems for the community. They’ve agreed to them, they’ve supported them, and they’re employed there,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s country director. 
 
 Another U.N.-led effort, to distribute thousands of home health-care kits, has ground to a halt, with most of the supplies sitting in unopened boxes across the country. 
 
 To some of the Liberian doctors who have been fighting the disease almost since the beginning of the outbreak last spring, the continued push to construct Ebola centers makes little sense. 
 
 Jerry Brown, a doctor who directs an Ebola center just outside Monrovia, used to attend the daily meetings where international aid groups, governments and U.N. agencies would discuss the collective response to the outbreak. He watched as the epidemic faded but the construction effort continued. 
 
 “They said: ‘We have to build it. That’s what is written, and that is what we’ll do,’ ” he said. 
 
 Out of frustration, Brown stopped attending the meetings in November. 
 
 Another Liberian doctor, J. Soka Moses, worked at one of Monrovia’s most chaotic Ebola centers, JFK Hospital, during the worst days of the crisis. It was closed in October after some health-care workers contracted the disease. Moses was eventually reassigned to a large new Ebola center built by the World Food Program and USAID. 
 
 “We are more prepared now that the outbreak is over,” he sighed. His new Ebola center, with a capacity of more than 200 beds, is now due to close. ||||| (CNN) -- Hundreds dead. Many more infected. Pervasive fear and denial are challenging authorities in west Africa who are trying to assess and address the Ebola crisis. 
 
 So far, it has killed more than 650 people, says Doctors Without Borders. 
 
 That's the highest death toll the World Health Organization has recorded in an Ebola outbreak. And it's getting worse. 
 
 The swelling numbers prompted heads of state to cancel travel plans on Thursday to direct their full attention toward fighting the outbreak of the virus that has crippled parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and stirred palpable concerns that it will spread around the region and the world. 
 
 Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leone's President Ernest Koroma both canceled trips to the United States, and Koroma declared a state of emergency. 
 
 He announced a action plan that addressed many of the barriers international medical workers complain they face while fighting disease. 
 
 Some residents in affected villages have accused them of bringing the disease into the country and have barricaded their towns or otherwise blocked access to Ebola hemorrhagic fever victims. 
 
 A nurse with Doctors Without Borders, Monia Sayah, told CNN, "the most challenging" aspect of trying to help people is that "we go into communities where we are not necessarily welcome," because people don't want to believe they or their loved ones have Ebola -- in part because "they understand now that the survival rate is not very high." 
 
 Koroma said he will deploy police and military to accompany the aid workers. 
 
 They will search house to house for the infirm and enforce orders designed to curb the virus' spread. 
 
 What is the risk of catching Ebola on a plane? 
 
 Aid groups pull out 
 
 "The matter has reached a crisis point," Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told CNN's Richard Quest. "...The dire prognosis is that it will get worse before it gets better." 
 
 The dangers are so real that some humanitarian organizations are pulling out to protect their own. 
 
 Samaritan's Purse -- an international evangelical Christian humanitarian agency -- and the missionary group Serving in Mission have recalled all nonessential personnel from Liberia. 
 
 The Peace Corps announced Wednesday it is doing the same, removing its 340 volunteers from that country, as well as Sierra Leone and Guinea. 
 
 While there are no confirmed cases, a spokeswoman for the agency did say that two volunteers did come in contact with someone who ended up dying from the virus. 
 
 Those Americans haven't shown signs of Ebola but are being isolated just in case, with the spokeswoman saying they can't return home until they get medical clearance to do so. 
 
 American dies 
 
 One American, 40-year-old Patrick Sawyer, died in a Nigerian hospital earlier this month -- having come from Liberia, where he was a top Ministry of Finance official, and before he could go back home to Minnesota to celebrate his daughters' birthdays. 
 
 But the vast majority of those afflicted are Africans. They come from big cities and small villages, some of them falling ill without really knowing what hit them. 
 
 "This epidemic is without precedent," said Bart Janssens, director of operations for Doctors Without Borders, a group also known as Médecins Sans Frontières. "It's absolutely not under control, and the situation keeps worsening." 
 
 As of now, the outbreak has been confined to west Africa. But there are rising concerns that it could spread, especially since a person may not know they have Ebola or show symptoms for two to 21 days after being infected. 
 
 Sawyer, for example, collapsed getting off a plane in Lagos, Nigeria. He very well could have made it out of the region, perhaps to the United States, before showing symptoms of Ebola; it's only then that the virus spreads. 
 
 To further complicate matters, signs of Ebola include fever, headaches, weakness and vomiting -- symptoms that also define many other ailments, from malaria to the flu that Brown notes often pop up "at this time of year." 
 
 For all these reasons and more, Janssens says, "If the situation does not improve fairly quickly, there is a real risk for new countries to be affected." 
 
 Could outbreak spread to U.S.? 
 
 2 infected Americans 
 
 Ebola spreads through the transmission of bodily fluids. Those most at risk are loved ones of those infected, as well as health care workers tending to the ill. 
 
 Sawyer is believed to have been infected by his ailing sister, who he spent time with in Liberia -- even though neither likely knew she had Ebola -- according to Brown. 
 
 Then there are those like Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, who fell ill early last week while overseeing Ebola treatment at a Sierra Leone hospital and died days later. 
 
 Two Americans affiliated with Samaritan's Purse who also were infected "have shown a slight improvement in the past 24 hours" though both are in serious condition, according to the Christian humanitarian agency. 
 
 One of them is Dr. Kent Brantly, a 33-year-old who last lived in Fort Worth, Texas. He has been the medical director for the Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia, where he has been providing care for Ebola patients since October. After testing positive for the virus, Brantly went into treatment at ELWA Hospital. 
 
 The other is Charlotte, North Carolina, resident Nancy Writebol, a Serving in Mission member working with Samaritan's Purse to help fight the Ebola outbreak. 
 
 Ebola fears hit close to home 
 
 It is believed one of the local staff was infected with Ebola and came to work with the virus on July 21 and 22, Samaritan's Purse Vice President Ken Isaacs said. That staff member died Thursday. 
 
 "We think it was in the scrub-down area where the disease was passed to both Nancy and Kent," he said. 
 
 Brown, the Liberian information minister, noted Brantly and Writebol's fight in his CNN interview, as well as Liberia's need for more health care workers like them. 
 
 "We join the families in prayers that they can come through this and become ... shining examples that, if care is taken, one can come out of this." 
 
 Liberian president: 'Ebola kills' 
 
 On Monday, the CDC issued an alert warning travelers to avoid hospitals with Ebola patients and funerals for those patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea due to the outbreak. 
 
 The United States is considering raising the alert to discourage "nonessential" travel to those three countries, a spokesman said. 
 
 Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has told the Ministry of Health to consider quarantines in some areas and cremating bodies in an attempt to prevent further infection, according to Brown. 
 
 The president also urged residents to avoid public amusement and entertainment areas, and set aside Friday "for the disinfection and chlorination of all public facilities." 
 
 "My fellow Liberians, Ebola is real. Ebola is contagious. And Ebola kills," Sirleaf said. "All of us must all take extra measures announced by the Ministry of Health to keep ourselves safe. 
 
 "The government will do its part. But you must do yours." 
 
 READ: Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone dies 
 
 READ: What you need to know 
 
 CNN's Jonathan Helman, Elise Labott, Pamela Brown and Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report. ||||| Troops set up roadblocks to ensure that only health personnel can move in and out of the hardest-hit communities 
 
 Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed in Sierra Leone and Liberia in an attempt to quarantine the remote villages at the centre of the Ebola outbreak, as three new cases were discovered in Nigeria and authorities in Saudi Arabia said a man was being tested for suspected infection. 
 
 The Saudi health ministry said a man in his 40s who had recently returned from Sierra Leone had shown symptoms of viral haemorrhagic fever and was being treated at a specialist hospital in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The patient is in isolation and blood samples are being tested. 
 
 As the epidemic entered its seventh month, 700 troops in Sierra Leone began setting up roadblocks to ensure that only health personnel could move in and out of the hardest-hit communities. They include two eastern districts where health workers have sometimes been attacked by residents who fear that treatment centres are causing Ebola to spread. 
 
 Military spokesperson Yayah Brima said food and medical supplies would be ferried in by convoys, and 50 military nurses would provide medical assistance to the soldiers. 
 
 Nancy Writebol, an aid worker from North Carolina, who was infected with Ebola in west Africa, arrives at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, US. Photograph: Sipa USA/Rex 
 
 Poor enforcement and medical practices in remote areas, combined with high volumes of cross-border travel, have fuelled the outbreak, which has so far claimed 887 lives. Ebola is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of infected patients, bush meat and surfaces. 
 
 "Border controls alone give a false sense of security," said David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who oversaw the global response to the Sars outbreak in 2003. "You cannot keep Ebola out using only that because people can still get to places where there aren't controls." 
 
 Alongside contact-tracing, he said, "the best defence is properly understanding how it is spread, stopping it spreading further, and making sure health workers are able to self protect with up-to-par hospital controls." 
 
 Efforts to contain the outbreak have been hampered as those on the frontline have been among the hardest hit. Both Liberia and Sierra Leone's top Ebola doctors died last month. Clinics in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, were closing their doors because doctors were too afraid to treat patients, Reuters reported. 
 
 British Airways has suspended flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone until the end of August to help try to contain the virus. The airline had been flying four times a week to the two countries. BA said customers with tickets on those routes were being offered refunds or the option to rebook flights for a later date. 
 
 "The safety of our customers, crew and ground teams is always our top priority and we will keep the route under constant review in the coming weeks," BA said. 
 
 In Nigeria, a doctor who treated a Liberian-American man who had travelled from Monrovia has contracted the virus, and another health worker and a third citizen who had travelled the Guinea are displaying probable signs of haemorrhagic fever, the World Health Organisation said. 
 
 A morgue in Nigeria's southern state of Anambra has been sealed while tests are carried out on a deceased person, said the health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu. 
 
 Enuka Egbon, a fruit trader in the Lagos district where eight people are being held in an isolation ward after coming into contact with the Liberian-American victim, said: "It's really scary because we have no choice but to keep going out and keep using crowded buses and shopping in markets. And Lagos is a city where there is very little breathing space." 
 
 Meanwhile, two US volunteer doctors who contracted the disease arrived in the US, where they are being treated with an experimental serum. Nancy Writebol and Kent Brantly of the charity Samaritan's Purse were said to be critical but improving after using the serum, which has been tested only on monkeys. 
 
 "Within an hour of receiving the medication, Brantly's condition was nearly reversed. His breathing improved; the rash over his trunk faded away," CNN reported, citing sources involved in the pair's treatment. 
 
 Last week the WHO said the outbreak had reached a critical point, and announced a $200m (£120m) emergency fund. On the last day of July, the latest day for which statistics are available, 163 new cases were reported, the WHO said.
– Hand-wringing isn't going to help stop the world's Ebola outbreak, but money might. The New York Times offers a list of groups trying to keep the disease in check in West Africa and elsewhere, along with links for those interested in donating: Doctors Without Borders: Ways to help here. International Medical Corps: Go here. UNICEF: Go here. Save the Children: Go here. International Red Cross: Go here. World Food Program: Go here. Samaritan's Purse: Go here. Partners in Health: Go here. Americares: Go here. An NBC cameraman is the latest American to contract the disease.