US nurse who survived Ebola feels 'fortunate and blessed'

Nurse Nina Pham, who caught Ebola while caring for a patient in Dallas, is released from hospital having beaten the virus

President  Barack Obama hugging the Ebola Free Nurse

An American nurse said she felt "fortunate and blessed to be standing here" after she was released from a hospital outside Washington on Friday, having beaten the Ebola virus.

Nina Pham is one of two nurses who became infected with Ebola while treating Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas.

Her colleague, Amber Vinson, is being treated at a hospital in Atlanta and is said to be making "good progress".

Mr Duncan died of the virus on October 8.

Ms Pham, 26, thanked staff at the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where she was treated.

 

The Nurse working out of the hospital in US

"I ask for my privacy and for my family's privacy to be respected as I return to Texas and try to get back to a normal life and reunite with my dog Bentley," she said, smiling at the mention of her one-year-old King Charles spaniel.
Bentley has been in quarantine since Pham's diagnosis but has tested negative for the virus.
After leaving hospital, Ms Pham visited the Oval Office, where she got a hug from President Barack Obama.