After nearly three weeks of treatment, the two American aid workers who were infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Africa have been discharged from an Atlanta hospital, officials said Thursday.
Their release poses no public health risk, Dr. Bruce Ribner of Emory University Hospital stressed. Dr. Kent Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol, 59, show no evidence of Ebola, and generally patients do not relapse and they are not contagious once they've recovered, said Ribner, director of the hospital's infectious disease unit.
At a news conference, Brantly, standing with his wife, said, "Today is a miraculous day."
"I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family. As a medical missionary I never imagined myself in this position," said Brantly, who has just been released. Nancy Writebol, 59, was released Tuesday, and her husband said in statement emailed by aid group SIM that that she is free of the virus but in a weakened condition and was recuperating at an undisclosed location.
Brantly choked up several times while thanking his aid group, North Carolina-based Samaritan's Purse, and the Emory medical team. The couple hugged the medical staff and joked with them. Several blinked back tears, then cheered and applauded as Brantly and his wife made their way from the room. Brantly said he and his family would be going away as he continues to recover.
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