3rd US Ebola Patient Released From Hospital

Former Ebola patient Dr. Richard Sacra participates in a news conference at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. Dr. Sacra who was treated at the medical center the last three weeks has left his room in the biocontainment unit and will head home soon. The CDC confirmed that two separate blood samples taken from Dr. Sacra 24 hours apart show the Ebola virus is no longer in his bloodstream. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

The third American aid worker who contracted Ebola in Africa was released today from a Nebraska hospital, AP reports.

An elated Dr. Rick Sacra said at a news conference that he was cleared of the Ebola virus by the federal Centers from Disease Control and left the isolation unit at the Nebraska Medical Center on Thursday morning.

"I feel great, except that I am extremely weak," Sacra said.

The 51-year-old doctor from Worcester, Massachusetts, may return to Africa someday to help, but he said he expects a long recovery ahead based on what his friend and fellow Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly said.

"I never felt like I was not going to make it. The care was so excellent, so speedy and so prompt," said Sacra, who contracted Ebola while working at a hospital in Liberia with the North Carolina-based charity SIM and arrived in Omaha on Sept. 5.

The World Health Organization says the Ebola virus is believed to have killed more than 2,900 people in West Africa. Governments are scrambling to contain the disease outbreak, and the United States has promised to send 3,000 soldiers to the region to help.

"Though my crisis has reached a successful end here, unfortunately the Ebola crisis continues to spin out of control in West Africa," Sacra said, adding later that the "odds I'll end up back (in Liberia) are pretty high."

Debbie Sacra spent most of the news conference watching her husband of 29 years instead of the room full of reporters and hospital workers. The two shared their first hug in nearly two months Thursday morning.

Two other American aid workers who contracted Ebola — including Brantly — were treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, and were released after recovering. A fourth American with Ebola is still being treated in Atlanta.

Dr. Phil Smith has said Sacra received an experimental Tekmira Pharmaceuticals drug called TKM-Ebola for a week after he arrived in Omaha. Sacra also received two blood transfusions from Brantly. These blood transfusions are believed to help a patient fight off the Ebola virus because the survivor's blood carries antibodies for the disease.

Sacra also received supportive care including IV fluids and aggressive electrolyte management, and his own immune system fought the virus.

Doctors have said that the combination of treatments Sacra received makes it difficult to know what helped him fight off Ebola.