Officials, including Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings, hold a news conference in Dallas on Monday about the recent Ebola infections.
AFP/Dallas
With no new Ebola cases in five days, US authorities were cautious but hopeful on Monday that the virus has been contained in the US after a flawed response revealed shortcomings in the system.
The fiancee of a Liberian man who died of Ebola earlier this month in Dallas, Texas, was among nearly 50 people who emerged from three weeks of quarantine without any signs of illness from exposure to the virus that has killed more than 4,500 in West Africa since the beginning of this year.
About 100 more people, most of them health care workers, are being tracked in Texas after coming in contact with the first patient diagnosed in the US in late September.
Still, officials said it was reassuring that no new infections emerged in recent days.
"We are breathing a little bit easier, but we are still holding our breath," said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.
Two US women were infected during the care of Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan. Both were nurses in the intensive care unit - Nina Pham, whose infection was announced on October 12, and her colleague Amber Vinson three days later.
Ebola is spread though close contact with vomit, blood, diarrhoea or other bodily fluids. Most people get sick within eight to 10 days of exposure, and health care workers are particularly at risk.
Officials have sought to contain panic over the potential spread of Ebola, as fears mounted in the US and a rash of suspected cases turned out to be nothing more than common illnesses.
"In the US, two people have gotten infected with Ebola. Two. Both of them were taking care of a desperately ill patient in a risky situation," said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a forum at Washington's Newseum.
Pham is in fair condition, and Fauci declined to speculate on whether she would make a full recovery.
"She still is a bit knocked out," Fauci said.
"When you get an infection as serious as Ebola it is very, very draining on you."
Vinson's family said in a statement on Sunday they "remain intensely prayerful and optimistic about Amber's condition and of the treatment she is currently receiving" at Emory University Healthcare, in Atlanta Georgia, but gave no details on the state of her health.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, which initially sent Duncan away when he sought care for pain and a fever, apologised on Sunday for its handling of the case.
Nigeria declared Ebola-free
Nigeria was declared Ebola-free on Monday in a "spectacular success" in the battle to contain the spread of a virus which is devastating Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The World Health Organisation said Nigeria - Africa's most populous country where eight deaths had sparked fears of a rapid spread through its teeming cities - had shown the world "that Ebola can be contained".
Another West African nation, Senegal, was declared free of the virus on Friday.
