Ebola Outbreak: State Department Will Evacuate Two Americans Infected With Virus

The State Department announced on Friday it was evacuating two U.S. citizens infected by Ebola in West Africa. It did not explicitly specify who the two Americans are because of privacy concerns, but there are only two Americans known to be infected with the virus in West Africa right now: Dr. Kent Brantly and aid worker Nancy Writebol. Both were working in Liberia with the U.S.-based Samaritan's Purse aid group. They were both confirmed to be infected last week.

UPDATE 2:17 EDT: Pentagon says American Ebola victims will arrive at Dobbins Air Force Reserve base, north of Atlanta and 20 miles away from Emory University Hospital, NBC says.

"These evacuations will take place over the coming days," State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said in the release. "CDC protocols and equipment are used for these kinds of medical evacuations so that they are carried out safely, thereby protecting the patient and the American public, as has been done with similar medical evacuations in the past."

Emory University Hospital, which runs a state-of-the-art isolation unit in co-ordination with the Centers For Disease Control, announced on Thursday it would be receiving an Ebola patient "within the next several days," but did not release any personal details on the patient.

The last update on Dr. Brantly and Writebol has them in "stable, but grave" condition. They're two of the 1,323 people who've been infected with Ebola since March 2014; 729 have died.