The Dallas nurse being treated for Ebola at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., is free of the virus and was being discharged on Friday, the NIH says.

Nina Pham appeared outside the hospital shortly before noon on Friday at a briefing on her treatment, saying, "I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today."

Surrounded by family members, Pham thanked Dr. Kent Brantly "for his selfless act" of donating plasma during treatment. Brantly is the American physician who contracted Ebola while working with a nonprofit medical mission group in Liberia. He was flown to Atlanta for treatment in August and has recovered.

"I believe in the power of prayer because I know so many people all over the world have been praying for me," Pham said in a short statement as she stood at a podium, with the din of camera shutters clicking. "Although I no longer have Ebola, I know that it may be a while before I have my strength back."

President Obama met with Pham in the Oval office Friday afternoon.

She asked for media to honor her privacy while she recovers in Dallas.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters flatly, "She has no virus."

Pham, 26, was admitted to the NIH hospital on Oct. 16. She was diagnosed with Ebola earlier this month after treating Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. She was initially treated at the Dallas hospital. Her dog, Bentley, has been quarantined since she got sick, but his test results came back negative for the virus earlier this week.

Pham is one of two nurses in Dallas who became infected with Ebola while treating Duncan, who died of the disease Oct. 8. Amber Vinson's family said Wednesday that she is also free of the virus. She is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Emory on Friday said Vinson "is making good progress in her treatment" and that tests "no longer detect virus in her blood." She remained at Emory's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit, the hospital said, with no discharge date scheduled.

NYC's first Ebola patient in isolation amid city jitters

NEW YORK--The nation's most emblematic big city came to grips with Ebola Friday as a doctor who tested positive for the deadly virus remained in hospital isolation while health officials traced his recent travels, quarantined his fiancé and close friends and sought to ease health concern.

Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old emergency physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, was being treated in an isolation unit at Bellevue Hospital Center after being rushed to the major trauma facility Thursday when he reported a high fever and diarrhea, which are among Ebola's symptoms.

Spencer, also a volunteer for international health care group Doctors without Borders, returned less than a week ago from Guinea, one of the three countries in West Africa hardest hit by an outbreak of Ebola. The epidemic there has killed about 4,800 people. More than 440 health workers there have contracted the disease, and about half have died.

"There is no cause for alarm," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a Friday afternoon news conference where he indicated no additional Ebola cases have been reported in the city's five boroughs.

"There is no reason for New Yorkers to change their routines in any way," added de Blasio.

According to health officials, Spencer followed standard medical protocol by taking his own temperature twice a day and refraining from seeing any of his New York patients while awaiting the end of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola, said city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Travis Bassett.

But as New Yorkers learned that Spencer in recent days had traveled at least three subway lines, gone bowling in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood with his fiancé and two friends, used an Uber car service ride and went elsewhere, questions rose about whether the risk of contagion could have spread.

Seeking to reassure the millions of residents and daily visitors to the five boroughs, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday said Spencer was well aware he would not be contagious and a potential threat to others unless he developed a fever and started experiencing other Ebola symptoms.

"This is a doctor who's taking his temperature twice and day and obviously concluded that he was not symptomatic, and that's why he went out, still in a limited way. He went bowling with two friends. He was with his fiancé and he took the subway," Cuomo said during a Friday morning appearance on NBC's Today show.

"As soon as he had a fever, he presented himself to the hospital. All of the procedures thereon were exactly according to the book," added Cuomo.

"He is a committed and responsible physician who always puts his patients first,'' New York Presbyterian Hospital said in a statement.

New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Travis Bassett said Friday that Centers for Disease Control tests officially confirmed Spencer tested positive for Ebola. Spencer's body temperature didn't change until approximately 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Thursday, when he reported a fever of 100.3, she said.
Spencer is now in stable condition under isolation at Bellevue, and "he is talking," said Bassett.

President Obama spoke to Cuomo and de Blasio Thursday night and offered the federal government's support. At the same time, city and state officials moved quickly to reassure New Yorkers that any threat of Ebola spreading from Spencer was negligible, and that health officials were prepared to deal with additional patients, if needed.

During his news conference de Blasio stressed that Ebola is "an extremely hard disease to contract" and doesn't spread through casual contact but rather through direct contact with body fluids of someone who's been infected.

He also urged New Yorkers to get flu shots as a way to helps medical teams avoid dealing with fever or fatigue that potentially could be mistaken for Ebola symptoms.

Still, New Yorkers remained concerned. A few vented criticism via Twitter about Spencer's recent travels, which officials said also included a three-mile jog and a visit to The High Line, a popular elevated park on Manhattan's West Side.

In a sign of concern, officials took rapid steps to contain even the hint of any threat the virus might spread.

The Gutter, the popular bowling alley and bar in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood that Spencer recently visited, was closed as a precaution. Spencer's apartment in upper Manhattan's West Harlem area was cordoned off. The Department of Health was on site across the street from the apartment building Thursday night, giving out information to area residents.

Spencer's fiancé and two friends with whom he has been in contact were placed under quarantine, officials said. None of those people, along with the Uber driver with whom he rode, showed any symptoms, officials said. One contact has been hospitalized as a precaution, officials said.

"For the relevant period of time, he was only exposed to a very few people,'' Cuomo said. (Source: USA Today)

Story Date: October 25, 2014