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 William Pooley, 29, was treated in a special isolation unit after
contracting the deadly disease in August when working as a volunteer
nurse in Sierra Leone.
"Following 10 days of successful treatment in the high level
isolation unit – the only one in the UK – Mr Pooley is being
discharged from the Royal Free Hospital today," the hospital said in
a statement on its website.
"He was flown to the hospital on Sunday 24 August 2014 and was
treated with the experimental drug ZMapp," it added.
Pooley later told reporters at a news conference he thought he had
been fortunate.
"I was very lucky in several ways," he said. "Firstly in the
standard of care that I received, which is a world apart from what
people are receiving in West Africa at the moment despite lot of
organizations' best efforts.
"The other difference to a lot of Ebola cases (is) that my symptoms
never progressed to the worst stages of the disease. I had some
unpleasant symptoms but nothing compared to some of the worst of the
disease."
Governments and aid organizations have scrambled to contain the
disease, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) has
killed more than 1,500 in West Africa since March.
ZMapp is one of several treatments for Ebola under development. The
drug, although never tested in humans, gained attention this summer
when two American aid workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia were
cured after receiving it.
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ZMapp, which uses antibodies from tobacco plants, is made by the
privately held Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc, based in San Diego,
California.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said a federal
contract worth up to $42.3 million would help accelerate testing of
the treatment.
It said Mapp would manufacture a small amount of ZMapp for early
stage safety studies and animal studies needed to prove its
effectiveness and safety in people.
Human safety trials are due to begin this week on a vaccine from
GlaxoSmithKline Plc and later this year on one from NewLink Genetics
Corp.
(Reporting by Stephen Addison; editing by Sarah Young)
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