Ebola patient evacuated from Sierra Leone last month is free of virus, released from hospital

ATLANTA – An Ebola patient who’s been treated in Atlanta since early September has been released, hospital officials said Monday.

The man was released Sunday from Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, after he was determined to be free of the virus and no threat to the public.

He was transported to the hospital on Sept. 9 after arriving in Atlanta on a jet. The World Health Organization disclosed that a doctor who had been working in an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone had been evacuated out of Africa when he tested positive for the disease.

However, hospital and health officials never released his name, in keeping with his family’s wish for privacy.

Emory is one of four U.S. hospitals with specialized treatment units for people with highly dangerous infectious diseases. The others are in Maryland, Nebraska and Montana.

In a statement last week, the unidentified patient said that his condition worsened shortly after he arrived at Emory and that for a while he was critically ill.

His time at Emory — nearly six weeks — is the longest stay of an Ebola patient at a U.S. hospital. None of the seven others was admitted for more than 3 1/2 weeks.

In August, Emory treated two U.S. aid workers who were infected in Liberia and evacuated to Atlanta. Both were released from the unit within three weeks.

Emory is also treating a nurse, Amber Joy Vinson, who was infected at a Dallas hospital while treating a visitor from Liberia. She arrived last week. Emory officials did not provide a condition report on her Monday.