The second Dallas nurse diagnosed with the Ebola virus after treating an infected patient from Liberia is now free of the disease and will be released from the hospital Tuesday.
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta announced that Amber Vinson will go home Tuesday, nearly two weeks after she was diagnosed with Ebola.
Vinson plans to make a statement at 1 p.m. at the hospital, which is one of four U.S. facilities equipped with special biocontainment units for treating deadly infectious diseases.
Vinson caught Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who arrived in Dallas in September already infected with the virus.
Duncan died earlier this month. Another nurse who treated Duncan, Nina Pham, has also recovered from Ebola and was released last week from a treatment facility at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.
With both Pham and Vinson cured, health officials are treating only one case of Ebola in the United States.
Dr. Craig Spencer, who caught the disease helping patients in Guinea, is now undergoing treatment at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital.
On Monday, the CDC announced refined guidelines for people arriving from three West Africa nations afflicted with Ebola. The guidelines call for isolation of “high risk” arrivals, including healthcare workers who have experienced direct exposure to the virus, such as through an accidental needle stick.
Earlier this month, Vinson raised alarm when it was disclosed that she took a round-trip flight from Dallas to Cleveland while in the very early stages of the disease. Nobody she came in contact with ended up catching Ebola, however.
