13 days after testing positive for Ebola, 26-year old Dallas-based nurse Nina Pham has been declared clear of the virus.
In a statement Pham released, she attributes her recovery to God and to science. She has expressed gratitude to the team of doctors and nurses who took care of her during the whole course of her treatment. She gave special mention to Dr. Kent Brantly who donated his plasma to her. Dr. Brantly is also an Ebola survivor who caught the virus while treating Ebola-stricken patients in West Africa.
Pham has expressed that while she has been declared free from the disease, she still requires time to fully recover her strength back. With that said she asked (the media) to respect her privacy as well has her family's especially during this point where things are yet to fully get back to normal.
Pham ended her statement by saying that her first priority upon returning to Texas is to reunite her dog, Bentley.
The same day, Pham flew to Maryland to meet US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. During their meeting, the US President gave the nurse a warm and affirming hug.
Nina Pham is the first American to contract the Ebola virus in American soil. She contracted the virus while treating Thomas Eric Duncan who got Ebola after returning from trip in West Africa.
While Duncan did not survive, Pham who was part of the medical team who treated him was able to triumph over it and escape demise.
There is yet to be established a cure for the disease. However, the slowly rising number of survivors which include Pham and Brantly is giving the WHO and even the health care volunteers from all over the world a new hope at putting an end to Ebola that has already taken almost 5000 lives in West Africa.
