Ebola Outbreak 2014 News Update, Watchlist & Death Toll: Dallas Nurse Amber Joy Vinson Released from Hospital
Texas Nurse Amber Joy Vinson has been released from Emory University Hospital on Tuesday. She was confined for nearly two weeks in the facility. Vinson is the nurse who traveled by plane while allegedly hosting the virus, as we have previously reported.
Nurse Amber joins the list of Ebola survivors in the United States. According to USA Today, she is the seventh American to be cured. Vietnamese-American nurse Nina Pham has also been declared Ebola-free on Friday at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
The two had almost similar events in their acquisition of the virus and their treatment modality. Both nurses are employees of the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital and took care of America's first Ebola-positive patient, Thomas Eric Duncan. Duncan tested positive for the virus on Sept. 30 and died on Oct. 8.
Both nurses also received blood from earlier survivor Dr. Kent Brantly.
The healed nurse expressed her feelings in a press conference via New York Times saying, "I am so grateful to be well, and first and foremost, I want to thank God." She no longer discussed the circumstances surrounding her infection.
The Emory University Hospital in Georgia has cured Nurse Amber fourth, following Kent Brantly, Nancy Writebol and another unnamed physician.
What's their secret?
Hospital officials said it was "supportive care." Employed in all of their Ebola-handled cases, such measure includes high regard for vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, respiration and pulse rate).
Nurse Amber has been the subject of public criticism after her plane flight, which prompted the immediate contact tracing of over a hundred passengers whom she has traveled with. New Zealand Herald wrote that Amber's family were "troubled by some of the negative public comments and media coverage that mischaracterize Amber and her actions."
The family hired high-profile lawyer Billy Martin, who, along with her family, pointed out that Amber was not careless in any manner. The statement went on, "In no way was Amber careless prior to or after her exposure to Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan. She has not and would not knowingly expose herself or anyone else."
Meanwhile, New York's first Ebola patient, Dr. Craig Spencer, is reported to be in a "serious but stable" condition. Confined at the Bellevue Hospital, Daily Mail reported that he has received blood from Writebol.
New York health and hospitals corporation president Dr. Ram Raju elaborated via the outlet, "The patient looks better than he looked yesterday, but he remains in serious but stable condition with the expected symptoms of the virus."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidelines in classifying risk patients, as we have reported earlier. The Ebola virus has killed over 4,900 people, said CNN. Ebola-stricken countries include Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.