Amber Vinson, the nurse who was infected with Ebola virus while treating Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas, walked out of Emory University Hospital’s special isolation unit Tuesday, free of the deadly virus.
Vinson, 29, joined members of her Emory treatment team for a press conference at 1 p.m.
"I am pleased to announce that Amber Vinson is being discharged from Emory University Hospital," said Dr. Bruce Ribner, who directed Vinson's treatment at Emory. "She can return to her family, her community and her life without any concern" of spreading the illness, Ribner said.
In a statement, Vinson thanked God, her family and her treatment team, as well as previous Ebola patients at Emory.
"I am so greateful to be well, and I want to thank God," she said. "It has been God's love that carried my family and me through this difficult time . . . Thank you to Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol for your donations of plasma for me and other patients."
Brantly and Writebol, volunteers who treated Ebola patients in Liberia, were the first two Ebola patients at Emory.
"While this is a day for celebration and gratitude, I ask that we would not lose focus on the thousands of families that continue to labor under the burden of this disease in West Africa," Vinson said.
Dr. Ribner said his team's experience with four Ebola patients has shown that aggressive measures, such as kidney dialysis, can be effective treatments for people stricken with the disease. Previously, Ribner said, when an Ebola patient began to lose kidney function, doctors assumed the patient would die and that dialysis would not be helpful.
"I think we have shown our colleagues in the U.S. and elsewhere that is certainly not the case," the doctor said.
Two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Vinson and Nina Pham, both came down with the virus after treating Duncan, who died at the hospital Oct. 8. Vinson began to exhibit Ebola symptoms a few days later, and, on Oct. 15, was taken to Emory. The Atlanta hospital has one of three special isolation units designed for treating patients with serious communicable diseases in the nation.
Pham was released on Friday from the National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md.
Vinson set off a nationwide furor when she traveled from Dallas to Cleveland to spend a weekend planning her wedding. The nurse had a low-grade fever when she made her return flight, but she had consulted the CDC before making the return trip and was cleared to go, the agency later confirmed. The CDC took heavy criticism for what many said was ineffective monitoring; a handful of schools closed in Ohio and Texas because children had been on the same plane.
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