Amazingly, after all the anguish these past few weeks over the man who died of Ebola at a Dallas hospital, Thomas Duncan, and the subsequent infection of two Dallas nurses who treated him at that facility, neither of them is dead. In fact, Amber Vinson, the Dallas nurse who flew to Cleveland before her infection was detected, has now been declared Ebola free:
Vinson arrived at Emory University Hospital last week for treatment. As of Tuesday night, officials with the hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Ebola were not able to detect Ebola in Vinson’s body, her family said in the statement.
Vinson “has also been approved for transfer from isolation,” the family’s statement read. “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,” her mother, Debra Berry, said in a statement.
Great news for Ms. Vinson and her family. In addition, the other nurse, Nina Pham, whom contracted Ebola after treating Mr. Duncan, has had her condition upgraded from “Fair” to “Good” according to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center where she is being treated. And also NBC News camera person, Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted the illness on assignment in Liberia, has also been declared Ebola free “according to a statement from the Nebraska Medical Center.”
Perhaps, this should serve as a lesson to our national media and to those who “rushed to judgment” seeking to blame the head of the CDC, Thomas Frieden, and President Obama for their handling of the “Ebola” crisis, that we were not as ill prepared as some have suggested. Did everything go smoothly? No, but we learned quickly how to handle patients with Ebola. If Thomas Duncan had been treated initially when he went to the Dallas Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital exhibiting signs of this infection, perhaps he would have survived as well.
In any case, good news. Maybe we don’t need an Ebola Czar after all.
