Red Cross official predicts when Ebola epidemic will be contained
BEIJING -- A top Red Cross official says he is confident the Ebola epidemic can be contained within four to six months.
The secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Elhadj As Sy, told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that the time frame is possible if there is "good isolation, good treatment of the cases which are confirmed, good dignified and safe burials of deceased people."
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people since it emerged 10 months ago. Most of the deaths have been in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
The humanitarian network is holding its four-yearly Asia Pacific regional conference in the Chinese capital.
Meanwhile, a TV news cameraman treated for Ebola was ready to go home Wednesday, the fifth patient transported from West Africa to recover at a U.S. hospital, as President Barack Obama's new Ebola "czar" Ron Klain got to work trying to pull together a coherent national response to the deadly disease.
CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett says Klein will brief Obama daily on issues, responses and decision-items. He will conduct conference calls and keep in constant contact with leading Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials on the Ebola policy front.
Two nurses remain hospitalized after catching the virus from a Liberian man who died at a Dallas hospital. Because of their cases, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued more stringent safety guidelines this week and is working with states to spread them to health care workers across the country.
"Recovering from Ebola is a truly humbling feeling," American video journalist Ashoka Mukpo said in a statement Tuesday from the Nebraska Medical Center. "Too many are not as fortunate and lucky as I've been. I'm very happy to be alive."
Mukpo, of Providence, Rhode Island, contracted the virus while working in Liberia as a freelance cameraman for NBC and other media outlets. He has been at the Nebraska Medical Center since Oct. 6 and was the second Ebola patient to be treated there.