NBC News Cameraman Ashoka Mukpo Declared Ebola-Free

The freelance cameraman who worked on medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman’s crew will be discharged on Wednesday

American Ebola victim, Ashoka Mukpo (Twitter)
Twitter

Ashoka Mukpo, the NBC News cameraman who contracted Ebola while on assignment in Liberia earlier this month, has been declared free of the virus and will be discharged on Wednesday, a Nebraska Medical Center representative confirmed to TheWrap.

A blood test performed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the 33-year-old no longer has the virus in his bloodstream, reported NBC News, and he is free to head home to Rhode Island.

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“The knowledge that there’s no more virus in my blood is a profound relief. I’m so lucky. Wish everyone who got sick could feel this,” he wrote on Twitter after being told the good news by nurses.

Mukpo was part of a news crew supporting the network’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman while on assignment in Liberia when he contracted Ebola. Snyderman and her crew were put on a voluntary 21 day quarantine. However, she sparked controversy by violating the advisory, causing it to be upgraded to mandatory.

See video:CNN’s Nonstop Ebola Coverage Skewered in Spot-On ‘Conan’ Parody (Video)

Mukpo began showing symptoms on Oct. 1 and immediately quarantined himself and sought medical advice. He was taken to the Medicins Sans Frontierese (MSF) treatment center where he tested positive for the virus. He was then transported to the Nebraska Medical Center’s biocontainment unit for treatment.

The NBC cameraman is one of several Americans who have contracted the virus and are currently being treated. So far, one man, Eric Duncan, has died from Ebola on U.S. soil, and two nurses who treated him have since tested positive.

Also read:Washington Post Photographer ‘Pissed’ at Syracuse University Over Ebola Snub

The disease has, inevitably, sparked hyperbolic panic in the public and particularly in the media, and has already become the source of numerous late night skits.

See Mukpo’s tweets about his recovery below.

 

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