Ebola survivor sits down for first TV interview

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- An American doctor who battled back an Ebola infection last month is speaking out about his harrowing experience with the deadly disease.

Dr. Kent Brantly, who was released from the isolation center at Emory University hospital on August 21 after nearly three weeks in treatment, spoke to NBC's Matt Lauer for a special that will air Friday.

Brantly contracted the disease while working with aid agency Samaritan's Purse in Liberia, one of the hardest hit areas in the historic outbreak.

"I woke up that morning, and really I just felt a little off; felt a little warm, a little under the weather," he remembered. "I took my temperature and it was 100.00, I think."

He said his wife and children had left Liberia just three days earlier to attend a wedding in Texas.

"I was so thankful that Amber and the kids were not there. That would have been an overwhelming mental burden if I had woken up sick next to my wife with one of my kids snuggled up next to me."

Amber Brantly said knowing more about the Ebola disease made it harder to cope with the news.

"I knew what was coming. I had seen him treat these people who had already been diagnosed and I knew how it ends," she said. "I knew how everyone had ended up so far, so I had the disadvantage of having the knowledge of the course of the disease. I was scared."

"Too be honest," Dr. Brantly said, "I don't remember that phone call."

Brantly says he's still not back to full strength, but is feeling better every day. He says he hopes his story will help raise awareness of the ongoing epidemic, especially for those in West Africa who won't get a dose of the experimental drug that saved his life.

Lauer also toured the room where Brantly spent three weeks in recovery in Atlanta.