Missionaries returning to Charlotte from Liberia
(pictured above: Nancy Writebol with her husband, David.)
The Charlotte-based international Christian mission organization SIM USA announced over the weekend that some of its missionary staff will be returning to Charlotte from Ebola-ravaged Liberia.
Because the returning staff worked with or around patients infected with the Ebola virus, SIM USA is working closely with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Public Health and the Mecklenburg County Health Department to prepare for their arrival and stay.
For precautionary measures, state and local public health officials are requiring a period of quarantine for the staff and other people who were exposed to Ebola and are returning to North Carolina within 21 days since their last exposure.
SIM USA says none of those returinhg is sick or has symptoms of Ebola infection. Out of concern for the privacy of the returning missionaries and their families, details of their arrival and stay are being withheld at this time, the organization said.
Johnson
“SIM USA has been working closely with international, national, state and local public health officials since this most recent outbreak of Ebola in Western Africa began,” said Bruce Johnson, president, SIM USA. “We will continue to cooperate and collaborate with them and adhere strictly to their guidelines in the return of our missionaries to the United States.”
SIM Missionary Nancy Writebol contracted Ebola while serving in Liberia. She and fellow American Dr. Kent Brantly, who also contracted the virus in Liberia, have returned to the United States and are being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
SIM has a staff of nearly 3,000 workers from more than 50 countries serving in more than 65 nations. In addition to medicine, SIM serves on every continent in areas of education, community development, public health and Christian witness. SIM stood for “Sudan Interior Mission” when it was founded 120 years ago, but now it is a global mission known as SIM (pronounced S-I-M).
