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Nurse Nina Pham declared free of Ebola, meets President Obama

President Obama met with Dallas nurse Nina Pham Friday after she was declared cured of Ebola and discharged from the hospital.

By Gabrielle Levy
President Barack Obama hugs Ebola victim Dallas nurse Nina Pham in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on October 24, 2014. Pham, 26, has been declared free of the disease that she contracted while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, who later died. UPI/Olivier Douliery/Pool
1 of 3 | President Barack Obama hugs Ebola victim Dallas nurse Nina Pham in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on October 24, 2014. Pham, 26, has been declared free of the disease that she contracted while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, who later died. UPI/Olivier Douliery/Pool | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- With an enormous hug in the Oval Office Friday, President Barack Obama delivered the message loud and clear: Don't panic about Ebola.

Obama met with Dallas nurse Nina Pham at the White House, just hours after she was discharged from the National Institutes of Health Hospital in Bethesda, Md., declared cured of Ebola.

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White House officials said no additional medical screening was required before the meeting.

"He is the president, and he was not at all concerned about any risk that would be associated with him showing his gratitude to her by hugging her," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters after the meeting. "The only question that people had was whether or not she would be up for making the trip down here to the White House."

Pham was one of two nurses to contract the disease while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas earlier this month. Duncan died on Oct. 8, and three days later Pham became the first person to contract the disease on American soil.

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Speaking at the hospital, Pham thanked Dr. Kent Brantly, the American physician who survived Ebola after contracting it while treating patients in Liberia. Brantly donated his blood plasma for use in treating Pham and other Ebola patients.

A second nurse, Amber Vinson, tested positive for Ebola several days later. Doctors said Friday they can no longer detect the virus in Vinson's body, and she is regaining her strength, although they have not yet determined when she will be discharged.

While several others have developed symptoms of Ebola in the U.S. after traveling from West Africa, Pham and Vinson remain the only two people to contract the virus in the country.

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