Son of American Ebola patient says she's 'smiling, even joking’

The American woman who was infected with the Ebola virus while working with a Christian aid group in Liberia is getting better and is even smiling, her son said today.

Speaking with NBC's Today Show, Jeremy Writebol said his mother, Nancy Writebol, 60, who was evacuated from Monrovia last week and was wheeled on a stretcher into a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, has gotten physically better

"When she came in on Tuesday last week, we were really concerned that she wasn't going to make it. To see her wheeled out of the ambulance and in, I was on the floor sobbing."

"We've seen her get physically better, her eyes brighten up, smiling, even joking a little bit" he said.

Jeremy, who says he sees his mum twice a day through a hospital window, said doctors told him they are cautiously optimistic she'll recover. Nancy is the second patient to use experimental drug, Zmapp

Writebol's husband, David, returned to the United States from Liberia on Monday. He remains in isolation, checking his own temperature multiple times a day for signs of fever.
Ebola symptoms can emerge two to 21 days after exposure to the virus, causing fever, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhoea, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.
A total of 1,013 people have died and 1,848 people have been infected since March, according to the World Health Organisation's latest tally on August 11.
Nearly 55 per cent of victims have died in the outbreak, which has spread to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
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