US missionary with Ebola slowly recovering, reunites with husband

The husband of an American missionary aid worker said Monday that his wife was slowly recovering and that they enjoyed a tearful reunion Sunday through an isolation glass at a hospital in Atlanta.

"I have had the great joy to be able to look through the isolation room glass and see my beautiful wife again," Nancy Writebol's husband David said in a statement released by the missionary group SIM.

"We both placed our hands on opposite sides of the glass, moved with tears to look at each other again. She was standing with her radiant smile, happy beyond words."

David said he was cleared to travel to Emory University Hospital to visit his wife after she completed a 21-day temperature and health monitoring without developing symptoms of Ebola virus disease.

"She is continuing to slowly gain strength, eager for the day when the barriers separating us are set aside, and we can simply hold each other," he said.

Writebol was working for SIM in Liberia when she contracted the Ebola virus, which has killed more than 1,000 in West Africa.

She was flown to Emory University Hospital for treatment on Aug. 5, three days after the arrival of the other American Ebola patient and also her colleague in Liberia, Kent Brantly.

Both received an experimental drug known as ZMapp while still in Liberia.

Brantly released a statement Friday, saying he is "recovering in every way" and hoping to be reunited with his family in the near future though he still reported "a few hurdles to clear" before his discharge.