Nurse infected by Ebola patient discharged

Amber Vinson hugs caregivers before leaving Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia....
Amber Vinson hugs caregivers before leaving Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. REUTERS/Tami Chappell
The second of two American nurses who became infected with Ebola while treating a Liberian man who died of the disease in Texas has been discharged from an Atlanta hospital, having been declared free of the virus.

"I'm so grateful to be well," a smiling Amber Vinson, 29, told reporters at Emory University Hospital before hugging the doctors and nurses who had treated her since her Oct. 15 arrival.

"While this is a day for celebration and gratitude, I ask that we not lose focus on the thousands of families who continue to labor under the burden of this disease in West Africa," added Vinson, looking fit.

The infections of the nurses in a Dallas hospital at the beginning of October illustrated the initial lack of preparedness in the U.S. public health system to safely deal with Ebola, which has killed about 5,000 people in three impoverished West African countries - Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - and raised fears of a wider outbreak.

The other nurse who worked at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Nina Pham, 26, was declared virus-free on Friday, left the Maryland hospital where she had been treated and met with President Barack Obama.

Vinson's case caused wider alarm when it was revealed that she had flown from Texas to Ohio and back on commercial planes. Ohio state health officials are still monitoring 163 people in case they show symptoms of Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that can only be transmitted through the bodily fluids of an infected person and is not airborne.

The Emory hospital declared Vinson virus-free on Friday, but she spent four more days in the facility before being discharged.

"After a rigorous course of treatment and thorough testing, we have determined that Miss Vinson has recovered from her infection with Ebola virus and that she can return to her family, to the community and to her life without any concerns about transmitting this virus to any other individuals," Emory University Hospital's Dr. Bruce Ribner told reporters.

Ribner added, "We all recognize that there is a lot of anxiety, and that is understandable. But the American healthcare system has been successfully able to treat patients with the Ebola virus."

Vinson is the fourth patient successfully treated for Ebola at Emory's hospital. Vinson and Pham treated Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who had traveled to Dallas in late September. He was the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States and he died on Oct. 8.

With concerns mounting over the spread of the virus, the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is considering a recommendation from top military commanders for a "quarantine-like" 21-day monitoring period for all U.S. troops returning from Ebola response efforts in West Africa.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said Hagel has not made a final decision on the quarantine recommendation, which would require a "regimented program of 21 days of controlled, supervised monitoring." That step is far more strict than guidelines recommended by civilian health authorities.

The U.S. military said on Monday it has started isolating soldiers returning from the West Africa mission at their home base in Vicenza in northeastern Italy, even though they showed no symptoms of infection and were not believed to have been exposed to the virus.

The U.S. military has repeatedly stressed that its personnel are not interacting with Ebola patients and are instead building treatment units to help health authorities battle the epidemic. Up to 4,000 U.S. troops may be deployed on the mission.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama will make a statement to reporters on Ebola after he phones a team working in West Africa for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The lone patient now being treated for Ebola in the United States is a New York doctor, Craig Spencer, 33, who was diagnosed on Thursday. He had worked with the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, treating Ebola patients in Guinea.

STATE RESTRICTIONS

Some states, including New York and New Jersey, have imposed their own safeguards, including mandatory quarantines for doctors and nurses returning from the three countries at the center of the epidemic, saying federal policies do not adequately protect the public. Some lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have criticized the response by Obama's administration as inept.

Federal health officials and others have criticized stricter state measures as potentially counterproductive, saying they could deter American doctors and other healthcare professionals from volunteering to help fight the epidemic at its source in West Afria.

Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in an interview on NBC's "Today" show, defended his state's Ebola policy on Tuesday, saying it is not "draconian."

"We're trying to be careful here. This is common sense," Christie said. "Our policy hasn't changed and our policy will not change."

Weighing in on the debate, Emory's Ribner said states must do "a very delicate balancing act" as they decide whether to quarantine returning U.S. doctors and nurses who have been fighting Ebola in the West Africa hot zone but "we must not let fear get in the way."

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