Nurse Nina Pham Ebola-free, meets Obama

DALLAS — After nearly two weeks in isolation, Ebola patient Nina Pham walked out of a Maryland hospital on Friday free of the deadly disease that has seized the nation’s attention.

“She has no virus in her,” said Dr. Tony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Health. “She is cured of Ebola, let's get that clear.”

Fauci's boss' boss got the message. President Barack Obama invited Pham and her family to the White House where he gave the Ebola survivor a big hug.

Pham — one of two Texas nurses to contract the disease while caring for the country’s first Ebola patient — was hopeful and humble as she left the hospital Friday morning.

“I am on my way back to recovery even as I reflect on how many others have not been so fortunate,” Pham said. “I do not know how I can ever thank everyone enough for their prayers and their expressions of concerns, hope and love.”
Still, the 26-year-old acknowledged the ordeal “has been very stressful and challenging for me and my family.”
“Although I no longer have Ebola, I know it may be a while before I have my strength back,” Pham said.
Pham and her colleague, Amber Vinson, were among 50 to 70 health care workers involved in the treatment of Liberian citizen Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas from Sept. 28 to Oct. 8.
Duncan arrived in Texas from Ebola-ravaged Liberia on Sept. 20. The disease, which kills more than half the people it infects, has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people in West Africa in 2014, the World Health Organization estimates. There is no known cure.

Duncan, 42, was the first person to ever be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Investigators have not determined how Pham and Vinson specifically contracted the disease from Duncan, who died on his 10th day of intensive care  at Texas Health Presbyterian. Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids and secretions, including blood, mucus, feces and vomit of an ill or deceased person.

Pham, a nurse for four years, was the first hospital employee to become ill. She reportedly felt a fever while at home two days after Duncan's death and drove herself to the hospital's ER. Her Ebola was confirmed on Oct. 12. It was the first time the deadly virus has been transmitted in the United States. Vinson was diagnosed on Oct. 14.
Both nurses were initially treated by their employer in Dallas before being flown last week to separate facilities with specialized units trained in treating Ebola.