Dr. Kent Brantly, Medical Director for the Samaritans Purse Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia, has tested positive for the Ebola virus. He is currently undergoing treatment at a Samaritans Purse isolation center at ELWA Hospital. Courtesy: CNN

ATLANTA (CNN) A specially equipped medical plane whisked Ebola-stricken Dr. Kent Brantly from Liberia to Georgia on Saturday, setting up the latest leg of a race to save the man whos now the first known Ebola patient on U.S. soil.

An ambulance rushed Brantly one of two Americans seriously sickened by the deadly viral hemorrhagic fever last month while on the front lines of a major outbreak in West Africa from Dobbins Air Reserve Base to Atlantas Emory University Hospital shortly after the plane landed late Saturday morning.

Video from Emory showed someone wearing a white, full-body protective suit helping a similarly clad person emerge from the ambulance and walk into the hospital.

Emory has said it will treat Brantly, 33, and, eventually, the other American, fellow missionary Nancy Writebol, in an isolation unit.

There, physicians say they have a better chance to steer them to health while ensuring the virus doesnt spread the last point nodding to public fears, notably expressed on social media, that the disease could get a U.S. foothold.

The plane, also equipped with a unit meant to isolate the patient, was able to take only one patient at a time. Organizers expect the plane will now pick up Writebol in Liberia, and bring her to Georgia early next week, said Todd Shearer, spokesman for Christian charity Samaritans Purse, with which both Americans were affiliated.

Brantlys wife, parents and sister cried when they saw him on CNN, walking from the ambulance into the hospital, a family representative said on condition of anonymity. His wife, Amber, later said she was relieved that her husband was back in the United States.

I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S., she said in statement sent to CNN. I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital.

Brantlys wife visited with him from behind a glass wall for about 45 minutes, the family representative said. Kent Brantly was described as being in great spirits and so grateful.

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First American Infected With Ebola Virus Arrives in U.S.

ATLANTA (CNN) A specially equipped medical plane whisked Ebola-stricken Dr. Kent Brantly from Liberia to Georgia on Saturday, setting up the latest leg of a race to save the man whos now the first known Ebola patient on U.S. soil.

An ambulance rushed Brantly one of two Americans seriously sickened by the deadly viral hemorrhagic fever last month while on the front lines of a major outbreak in West Africa from Dobbins Air Reserve Base to Atlantas Emory University Hospital shortly after the plane landed late Saturday morning.

Video from Emory showed someone wearing a white, full-body protective suit helping a similarly clad person emerge from the ambulance and walk into the hospital.

Emory has said it will treat Brantly, 33, and, eventually, the other American, fellow missionary Nancy Writebol, in an isolation unit.

There, physicians say they have a better chance to steer them to health while ensuring the virus doesnt spread the last point nodding to public fears, notably expressed on social media, that the disease could get a U.S. foothold.

The plane, also equipped with a unit meant to isolate the patient, was able to take only one patient at a time. Organizers expect the plane will now pick up Writebol in Liberia, and bring her to Georgia early next week, said Todd Shearer, spokesman for Christian charity Samaritans Purse, with which both Americans were affiliated.

Brantlys wife, parents and sister cried when they saw him on CNN, walking from the ambulance into the hospital, a family representative said on condition of anonymity. His wife, Amber, later said she was relieved that her husband was back in the United States.

I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S., she said in statement sent to CNN. I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital.

Brantlys wife visited with him from behind a glass wall for about 45 minutes, the family representative said. Kent Brantly was described as being in great spirits and so grateful.

Brantly, who has ties to Texas and Indiana, and Writebol, of North Carolina, became sick while caring for Ebola patients in Liberia, one of three West African nations hit by an outbreak that health officials believe has sickened more than 1,300 people and killed more than 700 this year.

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Ebola patient walks into Atlanta hospital; wife sees him through glass

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Atlanta (CNN) -- Dr. Kent Brantly answered a calling.

That's what friends and colleagues say about the man who garnered national headlines when he became the first known Ebola hemorrhagic fever patient in the United States.

Brantly, 33, arrived Saturday in Atlanta from Liberia, where he and another American missionary worker contracted the deadly virus while caring for Ebola patients.

From an early age, Brantly was driven by his faith in God to make a difference, friends and former colleagues said. He took mission trips to Uganda, Honduras, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Haiti, they said.

"He intended to be a missionary before he became a doctor," friend Kent Smith, an elder at Southside Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas, told CNN.

"Eventually, he decided medical mission is what he wanted to do."

Brantly went to Liberia with his wife and two children last year to serve a two-year fellowship through Samaritan's Purse post-residency program.

He was there initially to practice general medicine. But when the Ebola outbreak began, he took on the role of medical director for the Samaritan's Purse Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia. It's there that he tested positive for the virus, according to the evangelical Christian relief charity.

There is no known cure or vaccine for Ebola, and it has a mortality rate of up to 90%.

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Dr. Kent Brantly