Full Recovery Expected for Ebola-Stricken US Doc

Missionary doctor Rick Sacra is expected to make a full recovery from the Ebola virus he's been battling. 

Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the Nebraska Medical Center isolation unit, said a blood test sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a decreased amount of the virus in Sacra's blood.

The 51-year-old doctor contracted Ebola while working at a missionary hospital in Liberia. He's been hospitalized in Omaha, Nebraska, since Sept. 5.

Doctors are waiting on results from a second blood test. A second negative test is needed for Sacra to be released.

"We are still somewhat cautious because of the severity and unknown factors of this disease," Dr. Angela Hewlett, associate medical director of the isolation unit, said.

"We know from experience how other patients look as their condition improves, but since we have so little experience treating patients with Ebola, that tempers our optimism a little bit," she added.

Meanwhile Kent Brantly, another missionary doctor who contracted Ebola while seeing patients in Liberia, testified at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

When asked why an American doctor would risk his life to treat Ebola patients in Africa, he explained that Christians believe Jesus told them to "love your neighbor as yourself" and that a neighbor is anyone in need.

Brantly told lawmakers that missionary facilities provide as much as 70 percent of the health care in sub-Saharan Africa.