Nina Pham, the first of two Dallas nurses to be infected with Ebola while caring for late Thomas Eric Duncan the man who brought Ebola into US from Liberia, is now free of the virus, officials at the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced Friday.
And on her way home to Texas, she got a special treat a visit to the White House and a hug from President Barack Obama..
Speaking at a news briefing Friday morning outside the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., Pham, 26, said, "I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today."
"I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today," Pham said in a brief statement outside the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, just before she headed to the White House. "I am on my way back to recovery, even as I reflect how many others have not been so fortunate."
"I believe in the power of prayer because I know so many people all over the world have been praying for me," Pham said in a short statement as she stood at a podium, with the din of camera shutters clicking. "Although I no longer have Ebola, I know that it may be a while before I have my strength back."Pham has been treated at a special isolation unit at the NIH hospital since being moved there from Dallas on Oct. 16. She and a second nurse, Amber Vinson, 29, contracted Ebola while helping to treat Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Amber Vinson was also declared free of Ebola earlier today after receiving treatment in Atlanta.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed nearly 4,900 people out of nearly 10,000 reported cases, according to the World Health Organization.
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