Hospital: Amber Vinson cured of Ebola, poses no danger to public

ATLANTA, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Dallas nurse Amber Joy Vinson was released from a hospital in Atlanta Tuesday, appearing healthy and relieved as she hugged more than a dozen members of her medical care team.

"I'm so grateful to be well," Vinson said in a brief statement before the press. "With God all things are possible."

Vinson, 29, was preceded by Dr. Bruce Ribner, the director of the Serious Communicable Disease Unit at Emory University Hospital, who said the team has learned a great deal about treating Ebola as they have cared for -- and cured -- four Ebola-stricken patients.

"The Emory Healthcare team is extremely pleased with Ms. Vinson's recovery, and we were inspired by her courageous attitude and the strong support of her family and health care colleagues in Dallas," Ribner said.

He said medical teams have learned they can be far more aggressive in administering dialysis and other treatments to help patients who experience more advanced stages of the disease.

And he emphasized that Vinson's recovery means she is no danger to public health.

"We have determined that Miss Vinson has recovered from her infection with Ebola virus and that she can return to his family, to the community and to her life without any concern about transmitting this virus to another individual," Ribner said.

Ribner acknowledged that Vinson, along with fellow nurse Nina Pham, were likely able to recover from Ebola relatively quickly because they were young and in good health, rather than anything specific the medical team did.

"They are two of the youngest patients treated in developed countries," he said. "We know from a lot of data that younger patients do much better than patients who are older."

Vinson contracted Ebola while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who died from the disease after traveling to Texas from Liberia. She began experiencing symptoms on Oct. 14, a day after she flew from Cleveland to Dallas on a commercial flight, and tested positive for the virus the next day.

The CDC and Emory declared Vinson clear of the virus last Wednesday.

Pham, the first nurse to test positive for Ebola, was released from the National Institutes of Health Hospital in Bethesda, Md., on Friday.