Ashoka Mukpo, the American freelance photojournalist who tested positive for Ebola virus after working in Liberia, has finally recovered from the disease, reports said.
A news report published by NBC News, the company to which Mukpo is currently working, said that the 33-year old cameraman is now Ebola-free after a blood test from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that "he no longer has the virus in his bloodstream."
"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 said in a Twitter post.
He also said that it is a "profound relief" knowing that he no longer has the virus. He said he is "so lucky" and he also wishes those who contracted the disease to be healed soon.
In a statement Mukpo made at the Nebraska Medical Center, he described his recovery as a "truly humbling feeling," as reported by Agence France Presse.
"Too many are not as fortunate and lucky as I've been. I'm very happy to be alive," he added.
It is still unclear how he contracted the disease. However, Mukpo claimed that he was with many sick people while he was in Africa. He said he thought he was "keeping a good distance" but he eventually got sick.
Mukpo also said that he has no regrets spending weeks at a biocontainment unit in Africa to cover the crisis. AFP report said that Mukpo had lived and worked in Liberia for at least two years. He went back to the US in May but he was eager to return to Africa few months after. His parents even called him "crazy," the report added. He traveled back to Liberia early September to work as a freelancer for NBC News.
He was also quoted in the report saying that he considers Liberia as his second home, adding that he wanted to "help raise the alarm."
To date, Mukpo is the second patient who was treated in Nebraska. Missionary doctor Richard Sacra was declared virus-free on September.
According to the latest data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 4,555 deaths have already been recorded. Most of these are in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Eight deaths were recorded in Nigeria while one was recorded in the U.S. The victim was Liberian man Thomas Eric Duncan who just died this October.
Two more cases have been recorded in the U.S., CDC data showed. One of which was Nina Pham, the Dallas hospital nurse who contracted the disease while treating Duncan. According to a news report published by Reuters, Pham was upgraded to "good condition" from fair Tuesday. She is at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center Special Clinical Studies Unit in Bethesda, Maryland.
One Ebola case was also recorded in Senegal and another one in Spain, CDC website said. The World Health Organization earlier declared Nigeria and Senegal free of the disease.