Updated 11:32 am, Wednesday, October 22, 2014
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An American video journalist who has recovered from Ebola at an Omaha hospital will soon be heading home to Rhode Island but can expect months of fatigue and weakness, hospital officials said Wednesday.
Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted the virus while working in Liberia as a freelance cameraman for NBC and other media outlets, was released from the Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit around 9 a.m. He was still in the hospital complex late Wednesday morning, visiting with his family, officials said.
Mukpo, 33, of Providence, Rhode Island, did not attend the news conference.
In a statement read by Dr. Jeffrey Gold, the University of Nebraska Medical Center chancellor, Mukpo expressed his appreciation to the Nebraska hospital medical staff. He also joked about the nurses introducing him while he was in isolation to the Runza sandwich - a regional favorite involving hamburger, cabbage and onion baked inside the bread.
'After enduring weeks where it was unclear whether I would survive, I'm walking out of the hospital on my own power, free from Ebola,' Mukpo said in the statement.
Hospital officials had said Tuesday that Mukpo's blood tested negative for the virus. He had arrived Oct. 6 and was the second Ebola patient to be treated there. The first, 51-year-old Dr. Rick Sacra, has also recovered.
In his statement, Mukpo thanked Dr. Kent Brantly, who provided blood for a transfusion. Brantly, who got Ebola while caring for patients in Africa and was treated in Atlanta, also donated blood to Sacra. Such transfusions are believed to help Ebola patients because antibodies in the blood of a survivor may help a patient fight off the germ.
Mukpo also received IV fluids, similar to Sacra's treatment. But Mukpo received an experimental Ebola drug called brincidofovir that was different from an experimental drug given to Sacra. Asked if that difference is why Mukpo spent less time in the Nebraska isolation unit than Sacra, one doctor noted that Mukpo's age likely played a role.
'He's about 20 years younger than Dr. Sacra,' said Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit. 'It might have also had something to do with the amount of virus he had in his system. But I think his age was a big factor.'
Mukpo's statement said he plans to write about his experience.
'I feel profoundly blessed to be alive, and in the same breath aware of the global inequalities that allowed me to be flown to an American hospital when so many Liberians die alone with minimal care,' Mukpo said.
After the assistance he received from the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy in Liberia to arrange his evacuation, 'I've never felt more fortunate to be American,' he said.
