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US Declared Ebola Free As New York Doctor Makes Full Recovery

Published

9 years ago

November 11, 2014

The last known person in the US with Ebola has recovered and has been released from hospital.
Craig Spencer, an American doctor who became the first person to be diagnosed in New York, “has been declared free of the virus”, officials said.
He worked for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Guinea and tested positive for Ebola on 23 October after he returned.
Dr Spencer is one of several Americans to have recovered after being treated at a specialist unit in the US.
A Liberian man died in Dallas after contracting the virus before coming to the country.
But the fatality rate in West Africa is much higher, where nearly 5,000 people have died.
The American doctor had worked in a Medecins Sans Frontieres clinic like this one in Guinea
As he left Bellevue Hospital in New York city on Tuesday, Dr Spencer said his early detection and recovery spoke to the “effectiveness of protocols that are in place for health staff returning from West Africa”.
Dr Spencer said patients whom he had treated in Guinea had called him on his mobile to wish him well when they found out he had contracted Ebola.
He said his case represented a fraction of the more than 13,000 infections worldwide, and said his Guinean colleagues are the “true heroes we are not talking about”.