Amber Vinson, a nurse who contracted the Ebola virus after treating a patient in Dallas, left an Atlanta hospital Tuesday after a round of hugs with medical staff, who helped cure her of the disease.
Vinson, 29, was free of Ebola after about two weeks of treatment, which doctors speculated Tuesday was due party to her youth and because she was wearing protective gear when she contracted the disease while caring for Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola last month.
“It is quite likely the amount of virus she was exposed to was substantially less than it was in patients who get infected in less-developed countries,” said Dr. Bruce Ribner, who treated Vinson at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital.
Vinson did not take questions during a news conference but told the media she credited her faith with helping her endure Ebola, which has a fatality rate of up to 70 percent.
“I’m so grateful to be well and first and foremost, I want to thank God,” Vinson said in the moments before she walked out of Emory University Hospital. “It has been God’s love that has truly carried me and my family through this difficult time and given me strength and hope to fight.”
Vinson was one of two nurses who contracted Ebola from Duncan.
Nina Pham, 26, was also cured of the disease after treatment at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. She went home on Friday.
Ribner said doctors have honed their treatment of Ebola after learning more about the virus from the handful of U.S. patients they have cared for.
He said they are using electrolytes and fluids and treating the disease with more intervention, even in the severe stages of the virus.
“We have changed the algorithm of how aggressively we are going to be willing to begin caring for persons with Ebola disease,” Ribner said.
With Vinson’s hospital discharge, Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, who contracted Ebola from patients in Guinea, is currently the only person undergoing treatment for the virus in the United States.
