Physician and medical missionary Kent Brantly and his wife Amber Brantly became unwilling celebrities when Kent contracted Ebola while he treated outbreak victims in Liberia. In Called for Life: How Loving Our Neighbor Led Us into the Heart of the Ebola Epidemic (WaterBrook Press), the couple recounts how Kent became the first American survivor of Ebola after a months-long struggle to recover. The book releases on July 21, exactly one year after Kent was diagnosed with the disease.
How has the Ebola outbreak and your illness changed your lives?
The experience deepened our sense of [being part of] the global community and helped us realize that the most vulnerable among us—the ones we ought to view as neighbors—can be anywhere in the world, not just where we live.
How do you feel the world responded to the Ebola outbreak?
The international community was late in responding. Since then, various nations, international organizations, and NGOs have come to the aid of the countries hardest hit. We’ve seen a successful end to the outbreak in Liberia, but we must keep working and keep the pressure on until we have also eliminated Ebola from Sierra Leone and Guinea.
What can the U.S. and other countries do to curb Ebola and other deadly outbreaks around the world?
The well being of all of us is directly connected to the well being of each of us, and true concern brings the responsibility to take action. Along with improving the systems for responding to international health emergencies, the attitudes that form our public policies and opinions have to change. Ebola survivors as well as Ebola fighters and other people from that region have been stigmatized. Fear has trumped scientific knowledge and compassion, to the detriment of those carrying the heaviest burdens in the outbreak. I hope truth and compassion will win out over fear mongering and discrimination.
Has your faith been affected by your experiences?
We’ve seen God’s hand in our lives, and at the same time such tragedy and desperation around us. That raises difficult questions: What does it mean for God to be faithful in the midst of suffering? Why do such great inequalities and injustices exist in the world, and what does that tell us about the nature of God? We have more questions than answers, but we trust that God is who he says he is.
