Ashoka Mukpo, the cameraman diagnosed with Ebola while working in Liberia as a freelancer for NBC News, has been declared free of the virus and will be allowed to leave a biocontainment unit at the Nebraska Medical Center on Wednesday, the hospital said Tuesday.
A blood test confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Mukpo, 33 — one of eight Americans to have been diagnosed with Ebola — no longer has the virus in his bloodstream, the hospital said. It said he's free to head home to Rhode Island. "Recovering from Ebola is a truly humbling feeling," the hospital quoted Mukpo as saying. "Too many are not as fortunate and lucky as I've been. I'm very happy to be alive."
Worldwide, the worst outbreak of the virus on record is believed to have killed more than 4,500 people and to have infected more than 9,000 others, but recent therapies have started to help victims recover. The National Institutes of Health said Tuesday that Nina Pham, the Dallas nurse who was infected while caring for a Liberian man who died this month, has been upgraded to good condition.
IN-DEPTH
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SOCIAL
— M. Alex Johnson
