Amber Vinson, the second Dallas nurse infected with the Ebola virus, will be released Tuesday from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after testing negative for the disease.
Doctors declared Vinson, 29, Ebola-free on Friday, the same day Nina Pham was released from isolation at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland. Both Vinson and Pham contracted Ebola while tending to patient Thomas Eric Duncan at
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, according to the Dallas Morning News. He died Oct. 8.
Vinson created a firestorm of controversy when she boarded a commercial airplane to visit family in the Cleveland area earlier this month. She started experiencing Ebola symptoms a day after returning from Ohio and tested positive for the
virus Oct. 14, according to KXAS-TV.
Three people remain under quarantine in Ohio and 97 people are being monitored for symptoms of Ebola because of the trip, the television station noted.
Vinson's family has come to her defense about the Ohio trip, saying that she only boarded the plane after contacting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reporting a low-grade fever.
The CDC did admit to clearing Vinson to fly but, hours later, said she should not have boarded the flight, according to KXAS-TV.
"Suggestions that she ignored any of the physician and government-provided protocols recommended to her are patently untrue and hurtful," Vinson's family said in a statement.
KXAS-TV reported that officials still do not know how Vinson or Pham contracted the virus. Vinson told officials she wore protective gear, which included face shields, hazardous materials suits, and protective footwear while inserting catheters, drawing blood, and handling Duncan's bodily fluids.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.