NBC Cameraman Ashoka Mukpo 'Feeling So Blessed' After Testing Negative to Ebola; Has 'No Regrets' About Working in Liberia
Freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo is said to be free of the Ebola virus and he shared his relief via social networking site Twitter.
The NBC News photographer contracted the deadly virus while covering the Ebola crisis in Liberia, however, he tested negative for the virus he announced on Tuesday. Mukpo, 33, will be released from Nebraska Medical Center on Wednesday and he said he feels "blessed" to have recovered.
"Just got my results. 3 consecutive days negative. Ebola free and feeling so blessed. I fought and won, with lots of help. Amazing feeling," Mukpo tweeted to his 6000 followers. "Recovering from Ebola is a truly humbling feeling. Too many are not as fortunate and lucky as I've been. I'm very happy to be alive."
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Mukpo spent two weeks being treated in a biocontainment unit and despite his ordeal, he said that he has "no regrets" about going to work in the Ebola-plagued nation.
"But I don't regret going to Liberia to cover the crisis. That country was a second home to me and I had to help raise the alarm," he wrote.
It remains unclear how exactly Mukpo contracted Ebola, also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF). In Liberia there have been 3,834 reported cases and 2,069 related deaths this year as of Oct.1 2014, according to CDC.
"For the record - no idea how I got it. It was something fluky. My best guess is I touched a surface and didn't chlorinate fast enough," he tweeted. "I was around a lot of sick people the week before I got sick. Thought I was keeping a good distance, wish I knew exactly what went wrong."
The good news comes just one day after it was revealed that Texas nurse Nina Pham, who contracted Ebola while treating Thomas Eric Duncan (who died of the disease earlier this month), has improved. She is being treated at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and her condition has been updated from fair to good.
Her coworker, Amber Vinson, who also contracted the disease while treating Duncan, is being treated at Emory University in Atlanta.
"Still thinking about those nurses. Look forward to the day you two get news like this too...," Mukpo wrote.
On Tuesday, a passenger traveling to the US from Liberia was evaluated for signs of Ebola. The male Liberian national reportedly landed at Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday and showed symptoms of the deadly virus. No word on his condition has been released.
