Last Case of Ebola in US "Virus Free"

A New York doctor who was the last known person in the United States to be suffering from Ebola has recovered and was released from Bellevue hospital, Tuesday.

On his release Dr. Craig Spencer urged people to support U.S. health workers caring for patients in West Africa so that they are not subjected to "stigma and threats" after they return home, Reuters reports.  

"My infection represents a fraction of the more than 13,000 reported cases in West Africa, the center of the outbreak. Please join me in turning our attention back to West Africa and ensuring that medical volunteers and other aid workers do not face stigma and threats returning home," said the 33-year-old physician from New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center who also worked overseas with Doctors Without Borders. He lives in Harlem with his fiancée Morgan Dixon, who was also released from a mandatory quarantine Tuesday. According to The Guardian, two of his friends were also initially placed in quarantine and are still under active monitoring by health officials.

Spencer was the first person to be diagnosed with the disease in New York and officials said that he had "been declared free of the virus."

He thanked the doctors who cared for him. Referring to the panic that the epidemic had caused, Spencer said that his recovery demonstrated the effectiveness of the procedures that were already in place when he was diagnosed.

He worked for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Guinea and after he returned to the United States on 23 October, he tested positive for Ebola.

Spencer is one of many Americans who have recovered after being treated at a special unit dedicated to  Ebola patients in the United States, BBC reports. However, a Liberian man succumbed to the disease in Dallas.

Almost 5,000 people have died of the disease in West Africa.