Dr. Rick Sacra, the Massachusetts physician who survived Ebola, is set to return to Liberia on Thursday to assist colleagues at the missionary hospital where he contracted the virus. Sacra, 52, said he will not directly treat Ebola patients but may help occasionally, as doctors believe he is now immune.
'The medical staff is a little bit reduced. They've been working very hard and frankly they need a little bit of a breather,' Sacra said at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. 'I just feel the need to return to hopefully give them a break so they don't burn out.'
Sacra plans to focus on treating malaria and chronic conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, run by the Christian organisation Serving In Mission. He contracted Ebola in August while caring for pregnant women and was treated in Omaha, Nebraska, before being released in September.
Sacra acknowledged the risks but said he is less nervous this time, having already survived the virus. He will follow all safety protocols. His wife, Debbie, supports his decision, noting that Liberian survivors are already 'paying it forward' by working in Ebola units.
The World Health Organization reports over 8,150 deaths from Ebola in West Africa, with Liberia seeing a decline in new cases. Sacra is the first US patient to return to the region; a British nurse, William Pooley, returned to Sierra Leone in October.
