The second patient treated for Ebola at the UNMC in Omaha has been released after testing negative for the virus

NBC News videographer Ashoka Mukpo on assignment

The second patient treated for an Ebola at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Biocontainment Unit in Omaha has been released after testing negative for the virus in two consecutive blood tests over 24 hours.

NBC News cameraman and Ebola survivor Ashoka Mukpo ready to leave
UNMC to go home after a two-week ordeal recovering from the Ebola virus

Ashoka Mukpo was working as a free-lance videographer for NBC News in Liberia when he contracted the deadly Ebola virus earlier this month. After his diagnosis, Mukpo was transported via jet to UNMC's Biocontainment Unit for quarantine and treatment. 

He was released Wednesday afternoon after about two weeks of treatment at the hospital’s Level-4 Biocontainment Unit.

Mukpo bounced back quicker and was in the hospital five fewer days than Dr. Richard Sacra, the first U.S. Ebola patient to be treated at UNMC.

Mukpo received the same basic treatment as Sacra, but was able to take an experimental drug against Ebola in pill form, where as Sacra needed an IV. There still is no cure to the deadly Ebola virus, which can have a mortality rate of up to 90 percent in those infected who are left untreated.

At a news conference, Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of UNMC's Biocontainment Unit, who treated both men’s treatment, said with each case treated at UNMC, the medical community gains valuable insight and information about how to deal with the deadly Ebola virus.

"With this patient gone, and before we get another patient, I think we’re going to use that time to try and share our knowledge with the rest of the world," Dr. Smith said.

U.S. Secretery of Defense Chuck Hagel has already reached out to the staff at UNMC and asked for their assistance in forming new medical and security protocols on how to deal with containing the highly infectious Ebola virus.

Dr. Phil Smith with Ashoka Mukpo and Dr. Andre Kalil at UNMC

Mukpo declined to appear at the news conference, but did submit a written statement which was read by UNMC Chancellor Dr. Jeffrey Gold on his behalf.

Mukpo’s said in part, “I feel profoundly blessed to be alive, and in the same breath aware of the global inequalities that allowed me to be flown to an American hospital when so many Liberians die alone with minimal care. I know firsthand that this disease is treatable and hope that some approximation of the care I received can be given to sick Africans.”

While other hospitals are running away from anyone infected with the deadly virus, UNMC hospital officials said it is up to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the State Department to decide when UNMC might receive another Ebola patient. Officials said they’re ready now if called upon.

References:

• Medicine of Omaha—5 U.S. aid workers monitored and quarantined for Ebola in Omaha released (3/31/15)
• Medicine of Omaha—Patient exposed to the Ebola virus hospitalized in Omaha (1/5/15)
• Medicine of Omaha—UNMC's third Ebola patient, Dr. Martin Salia, dies in Omaha (11/18/14)
• Wall St. Journal—I Got Ebola and Survived (11/13/14)
• CNN—Ashoka Mukpo: Ebola 'more intense than anything’ (10/30/14) with video
• NPR—Second Ebola Patient Released From UNMC (10/22/14)
• NBC News—EXCLUSIVE: Ebola Survivor Ashoka Mukpo Speaks to NBC News (10/22/14) with video
• NBC News—NBC Freelancer Ashoka Mukpo 'Enormously Relieved' to Be in Nebraska (10/6/14) with video
• Medicine of Omaha—Dr. Rick Sacra back home after leaving Nebraska Medical Center (9/26/14)