(NBC NEWS) Amber Vinson’s blood tested negative for Ebola virus just nine days after she was first diagnosed. Her fellow nurse, Nina Pham, is now in good condition.
The two nurses infected when they treated the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan, have seemingly fared better than most patients with the disease. Is that thanks to early treatment, did the two nurses just get a smaller dose of the virus to start with, or are other factors at work?
Doctors familiar with Ebola say it’s almost impossible to know. Only seven people have ever been treated for Ebola in the United States. Six recovered and only Duncan died. Even with such small numbers it’s a stark contrast to the epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where the World Health Organization says 70 percent of patients are dying.