Nina Pham, the Texas nurse who was the first person to contract Ebola in the US, is now free of the virus, the National Institutes of Health announced Friday.
The first person to contract Ebola in the US is now virus-free
Pham was diagnosed with Ebola on October 12 after caring for Liberian patient Thomas Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Her colleague, Amber Vinson, was diagnosed on October 15 and is still being treated.
Following the diagnoses, many people, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and another Texas nurse, criticized Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for breaches in protocol. The hospital’s director later apologized for the mistakes in front of Congress.
Despite the cases, public health officials and experts caution that the US is much better equipped to deal with domestic cases of Ebola, making the chances of an outbreak in the states very unlikely.
To learn more about Ebola, read Vox’s card stack, 21 maps and charts that explain Ebola, and watch the two-minute video below:
