CHARLOTTE, NC — The Centers for Disease Control is projecting more than a million new cases of Ebola in West Africa in the next four months. The outbreak shows no signs of slowing, and it’s killing 70 percent of those infected.
Charlotte missionary Nancy Writebol beat those odds, beat Ebola. She’s talking with WCCB Charlotte about what’s next.
“I’m doing better,” says Nancy. “I’m gaining my strength every day.”
Nancy Writebol’s near-death experience with Ebola seems to have strengthened the resolve she and husband David share to battle the epidemic in West Africa.
“How quickly it is spreading,” she says. “It just seems like it’s not slowing down at all.”
“There are faces, and families, that are afflicted and at risk'” says David Writebol. “We know some of them.”
They’ve seen the struggle on the front lines, and know it will take more education, resources and brave souls to slow the spread.
“You have firemen, and that house is burning,” says Nancy. “They go in, because that’s their job. They want to help.”
“You step and you do what you can,” says David. “And it’s a way of identifying with the plight of others.”
And now there is added danger; aid workers threatened and attacked by the people they are trying to help.
“It’s of grave concern,” says David. “And it compounds, and makes the job more difficult.”
The Writebols are ready to return to West Africa, to Liberia and the heart of the Ebola outbreak.
“Our doctors have not given me clearance yet,” says Nancy. “I asked the other day, can I go back to Africa? And they looked at me and said well, it’s too soon.”
“He hasn’t told us we’re done yet,” says her husband. “And so we’re still going to serve in any way we can, and as he leads us.”
The World Health Organization says that more than 5,800 people have been infected with the virus. 2,800 have died from Ebola so far this year.
