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Amber Vinson

Family: Amber Vinson free of Ebola virus

Michael Winter
USA TODAY
Nurse Amber Vinson contracted the virus while caring for patient Thomas Eric Duncan.

Dallas nurse Amber Vinson is free of the Ebola virus and will be transferred from isolation at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, her family said Wednesday.

The family also said that the 29-year-old nurse, who contracted the virus from Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, was regaining strength and that her spirits were high.

"We are overjoyed to announce that, as of yesterday evening, officials at Emory University Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control (and Prevention) are no longer able to detect virus in her body," the family said in a statement hours after Vinson spoke with her mother, Debra Berry.

She said her daughter, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian, has been cleared for transfer from isolation at Emory. She remains under treatment at the hospital's unit for serious communicable diseases.

"Amber and our family are ecstatic to receive this latest report on her condition," Berry said.

While acknowledging that Vinson would require further treatment, the statement did not indicate when she might be released.

A spokeswoman said the hospital could not release information about Vinson. USA TODAY is seeking confirmation from the CDC.

CDC Director Tom Frieden did not mention Vinson during a telephone briefing with reporters Wednesday morning.

Vinson flew from Dallas to Cleveland two weeks ago, days after Duncan died Oct. 8. She returned to Dallas on Oct. 13 after learning that colleague Nina Pham, who also treated Duncan, had tested positive for Ebola two days earlier.

Though she exhibited no symptoms on the return Frontier Airlines flight, Vinson developed a high fever the next day and later tested positive for the virus. The CDC acknowledged that its emergency response center had cleared Vinson to fly after she reported a slight fever.

Pham was transferred to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where she continues to improve. And Dallas officials announced Wednesday that her dog had tested negative for Ebola.

On Monday, Emory University Hospital announced that a third Ebola patient, an unidentified man who contracted the virus in West Africa, had been released.

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