Ebola outbreak in the West: Why some survive, some don't

There's no cure for Ebola. So why have some patients walked away healthy while others in the West died?

Dr. Kent Brantly, Nancy Writebol and Dr. Rick Sacra all contracted the disease while working in Liberia -- and all survived.

Spanish nurse's aide Teresa Romero Ramos got the virus while tending to stricken patients. She too lived.

But like the patients above, Thomas Eric Duncan and Spanish priest Miguel Pajares also received treatment in the West. Yet they died.

While there might not be a single, conclusive answer, a series of factors may contribute to survival.

Early, high-quality treatment

This may be the most critical factor in beating Ebola.

The survivors in the United States all have one thing in common -- they were rushed to two of the country's four hospitals that have been preparing for years to treat a highly infectious disease such as Ebola.

Brantly and Writebol were successfully treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta; Sacra was released from the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Duncan didn't go to one of those four hospitals. He went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas with a fever and told them he'd recently returned from Liberia. Yet the hospital initially sent him home with antibiotics.

Then, after he returned to the hospital much more ill, two nurses became sick with the virus. They have since been moved to more specialized facilities such as Emory and the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

But that doesn't mean patients are doomed just because they go to a different hospital.

. "In West Africa, the mortality rates are above 60%. I think it is better in the United States. But they're not going to be zero, I think no matter where somebody is."

Spanish nurse's aide found to be Ebola-free in third test

Quick rehydration

After finding a hospital capable of treating Ebola, those who survive are usually rehydrated quickly.

"The most important care of patients with Ebola is to manage their fluids and electrolytes, to make sure that they don't get dehydrated," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "And that requires some meticulous attention to detail and aggressive rehydration in many cases."

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