Ashoka Mukpo, NBC Cameraman With Jewish Roots, Free of Ebola

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By Reuters October 22, 2014

NBC freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted Ebola while working in West Africa, is free of the virus and will leave the Nebraska Medical Center on Wednesday, the hospital said. Mukpo arrived in the United States on Oct. 6 for treatment.

He is the second patient to be successfully treated for Ebola at the Nebraska Medical Center, the hospital said on Tuesday, and the fifth treated in the United States to fully recover.

“Recovering from Ebola is a truly humbling feeling,” Mukpo said in a statement. “Too many are not as fortunate and lucky as I’ve been. I’m very happy to be alive.”

“I was around a lot of sick people the week before I got sick,” said Mukpo, the first U.S. journalist known to have contracted Ebola. “I thought I was keeping a good distance and wish I knew exactly what went wrong.”

He said his illness had not changed his feelings about Liberia. “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.”

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