2 AMERICANS WITH EBOLA RETURNING TO U.S. IN 'NEXT SEVERAL DAYS'

Atlanta (CNN) -- Efforts to evacuate two seriously ill American Ebola patients from Africa were well under way Friday, with a plane flying to Liberia and planners hoping to bring them separately to the United States within days, officials said.
Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, who were infected with the deadly virus while treating Ebola patients in Liberia last month, have been in serious condition there for days -- just two of the more than 1,300 people believed sickened in the worst Ebola outbreak in recorded history.
A medical charter plane that departed Georgia on Thursday will bring back one American at a time, starting with whoever is in the best condition to travel, said Todd Shearer, spokesman for Samaritan's Purse, the Christian aid group with which both are affiliated.
The plane is equipped to bring only one patient at a time, Shearer said Friday.
The Americans will arrive at Georgia's Dobbins Air Reserve Base before being transferred to an Emory University medical facility in Atlanta, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.
Dr. Bruce Ribner, who heads the Emory University Hospital isolation unit that will care for the patients, said that one of them "will arrive in the next several days, and then a second patient will be coming a few days after that."
"The patients have been evaluated, and (medical officials in Liberia) feel they are safe to transport," Ribner said of the two patients.
The evacuation effort was in motion Friday, with the plane making a stop at the Azores' Lajes Air Base on Friday morning on its way to Liberia, according to Maria Francisca Seabra, a spokeswoman for Portugal's Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Evacuations trigger fear in U.S.
When the plane lands in Georgia with a patient lying in the microbial containment system erected in its bay, it will be the first time that someone diagnosed with Ebola will be known to be in the country.
Writebol's and Brantly's best chance to survive is to get back to the United States, said virologist Dr. Charles Chiu from the University of California San Francisco.
Emory University Hospital has a specially built isolation unit that is designed to treat patients exposed to infectious diseases like Ebola, the hospital said in a statement Thursday. It is one of only four units in the United States.
"Emory University Hospital physicians, nurses and staff are highly trained in the specific and unique protocols and procedures necessary to treat and care for this type of patient," the statement said. "These procedures are practiced on a regular basis throughout the year so we are fully prepared for this type of situation."
After the evacuation plans were made public Thursday, social media in the United States lit up with fearful reactions. Many posts called for keeping the infected patients out of the country.
"As much as I respect the Samaritan's Purse workers with Ebola, I really don't want it anywhere near the US," a user posted to Twitter under the hashtag#EbolaOutbreak.
On the website of conspiracy talker Alex Jones, who has long purported that the CDC could unleash a pandemic and the government would react by instituting authoritarian rule, the news was a feast of fodder.
"Feds would exercise draconian emergency powers if Ebola hits U.S.," a headline read on infowars.com.
Practically inevitable
But the arrival of people infected with Ebola is virtually inevitable, with the proliferation of daily international air travel, many experts have said. It takes a while for symptoms to break out, so an infected person can get onto a plane feeling fine and then fall ill after landing.
Still, Ebola spreads slowly, because to contract it, one has to come into direct contact with a sick patient's bodily fluids: things like saliva, excrement, blood.
Western health care professionals say they can quickly contain Ebola patients and quell the possible spread of the virus.
The current outbreak largely affects Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, though Nigeria had one case after a Liberian official -- who also was an American citizen -- flew there.
There have been 1,323 known or suspected Ebola cases since the outbreak began in Guinea in March, the World Health Organization says. More than 700 people have died.
Ebola's symptoms start out like those of many diseases, including common flus, with headaches, fever, nausea and diarrhea, but progress to abdominal pain and bleeding.
"That's usually the blood loss and the fluid loss results in organ failure, which is how most patients actually succumb to the disease," Chiu said.
Virtually impossible
Experts say it is unlikely that Writebol or Brantly would trigger an outbreak in the United States.
"The risk of secondary transmission -- for them to actually infect other health care workers here in the United States or other people in the United States -- the risk is very, very low," Chiu said.
The isolative pod aboard the Gulfstream jet is called an Aeromedical Biological Containment System and looks like a tent. It contains multiple layers of isolation to prevent the patient from coming into contact with anyone, including caregivers inside the pod.
Healing the healers
Brantly and Writebol came down with Ebola while working to save the lives of patients in Liberia.
There is no cure for it. But caregivers can nurse the ill in hopes they will survive, while the body's immune system fights the disease. About 55% of the patients have died.
Medical workers in Liberia, who are caring for the missionaries, gave Writebol an experimental serum this week. There was only one dose available, and her colleague, Brantly, insisted that she receive it, Samaritan's Purse said.
Brantly was given blood from a patient whose life he had helped save.
If time is merciful, the best possible treatment in the United States could save the life of one of the heroic aid workers.
The fight against Ebola
There is currently no vaccine available to prevent Ebola's spread, but one is in the works.
The National Institutes of Health announced that it will begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine in people as early as September. Tests on primates have been successful.
The announcement came the same day as the CDC issued a Level 3 alert for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, warning against any nonessential travel to the region.
As of now, the outbreak has been confined to West Africa, but it is getting worse there. Although infections are dropping off in Guinea, they are on the rise in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
As infection accelerates, some aid groups are pulling out to protect their own.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said that even in a best-case scenario, it could take three to six months to stem the epidemic in West Africa.