U.S. Ebola patient at Nebraska hospital eats, listens to music

(Reuters) - A U.S. medical missionary infected with the Ebola virus in West Africa was able to eat breakfast on Monday and was listening to music at the Nebraska Medical Center where he was taken for treatment last week, his wife said. "He hasn't been able to eat much since he got here, but he had some toast and apple sauce. He also tolerated the research drug well – better than he had the previous doses he was given," Debbie Sacra said in a statement. Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, arrived at the hospital on Friday. He contracted Ebola while working at a hospital in Liberia, one of five West African countries affected by an outbreak. The World Health Organization said on Monday the Ebola virus is spreading fast in Liberia, where many thousands of new cases are expected over the coming three weeks. The outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 2,000 people and infected about 4,000 since it began in March. The virus kills about half of those who contract it. Sacra's family arrived in Nebraska over the weekend and have communicated with him over a video link. Sacra, who is from Massachusetts, was working in West Africa on behalf of the North Carolina-based Christian group SIM USA. "We had a good conversation last night," Debbie Sacra said. "We were able to speak again via video conference for about a half hour. He also wanted some music to listen to, so staff members here were able to help make that happen." Doctors in Nebraska have said they are using an unidentified experimental research drug to treat Sacra. On Sunday they said he was stable and more alert and talkative than when he arrived, but it was too soon to say whether he had turned a corner. An experimental drug, ZMapp, was given to two Ebola patients who were treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and recovered. No more doses of ZMapp are available, and doctors have said it is not clear whether it helped their recovery. Sacra is being cared for in a special isolation unit designed to treat patients with highly infectious diseases, similar to a containment unit at Emory. Several U.S. hospitals have reported seeing patients with symptoms associated with Ebola but have tested negative. Last week a patient in Miami tested negative for Ebola, according to Jackson Health System. (Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis and Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida; Editing by Eric Beech)