Texas nurse Amber Vinson now free of Ebola virus, family says

Ebola is now undetectable in Texas nurse Amber Vinson’s body, and she has been approved to leave isolation at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, her family announced Wednesday.

Officials from the hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found Vinson to be clear of the deadly virus as of Tuesday evening, but she’s still being treated at the hospital, the family said in a statement.

“Amber and our family are ecstatic to receive this latest report on her condition,” said her mother, Debra Berry. “We all know that further treatment will be necessary as Amber continues to regain strength, but these latest developments have truly answered prayers and bring our family one step closer to reuniting with her at home.”

Vinson, 29, was the second of two nurses diagnosed with Ebola this month after taking care of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed on U.S. soil, at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

After treating Duncan but before being diagnosed, Vinson traveled to Ohio and back to Dallas by plane, raising fear that she may have spread the virus to fellow travelers. The CDC approved her return flight even though she had a slight fever. No Ebola cases related to Vinson’s travel have been reported.

The other nurse, 26-year-old Nina Pham, is being treated at a National Institutes of Health clinic in Bethesda, Md. On Tuesday, her condition was upgraded to good, and her dog has tested negative for the virus.

Another Ebola patient, American journalist Ashoka Mukpo, tested negative for the virus this week. He was released from the biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha on Wednesday morning.

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