Greg Toppo

USATODAY

The Dallas nurse being treated for Ebola at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., is free of the virus and was discharged on Friday, the NIH says.

Nina Pham appeared outside the hospital shortly before noon on Friday at a briefing on her treatment, saying, "I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today."

Surrounded by family members and the doctors who treated her, Pham thanked Kent Brantly "for his selfless act" of donating plasma during treatment. Brantly is the American physician who contracted Ebola while working with a nonprofit medical mission group in Liberia. He was flown to Atlanta for treatment in August and has recovered.

"I believe in the power of prayer because I know so many people all over the world have been praying for me," Pham said in a short statement as she stood at a podium, with the din of camera shutters clicking. "Although I no longer have Ebola, I know that it may be a while before I have my strength back."

She asked for media to honor her privacy while she recovers in Dallas.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters flatly, "She has no virus."

Fauci took the opportunity to remind the public that Ebola is not easily passed from person to person. "The way you get Ebola is by direct contact with the body fluids of an ill individual," he said. "And if you don't have that, you do not have to worry about Ebola."

He said the public "must separate the issue of the risk to a general public with the risk with brave people like Nina and her colleagues — they're two different things."

President Obama met with Pham in the Oval office on Friday afternoon, after the White House contacted the NIH in order to let Pham know "that the president was interested in meeting her if she felt up to it," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Pham's treatment of the Ebola patient and her recovery is a tribute to both her and the medical profession, he said. "We do have the best medical infrastructure in the world."

The meeting was closed to reporters, but still photographers were permitted to watch as Obama greeted Pham and embraced her.

Pham, 26, was admitted to the NIH hospital on Oct. 16. She was diagnosed with Ebola earlier this month after treating Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. She was initially treated at the Dallas hospital. Her dog, Bentley, has been quarantined since she got sick, but his test results came back negative for the virus this week.

Pham is one of two nurses in Dallas who became infected with Ebola while treating Duncan, who died of the disease Oct. 8. Amber Vinson's family said Wednesday that she is also free of the virus. She is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Emory on Friday said Vinson "is making good progress in her treatment" and that tests "no longer detect virus in her blood." She remained at Emory's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit, the hopsital said, with no discharge date scheduled.

In a statement, Texas Health Resources CEO Barclay Berdan said hospital workers there are "thrilled that Nina Pham is Ebola-free and on her way home. Her colleagues and friends eagerly look forward to welcoming her back. Her courage and spirit, first in treating a critically ill Ebola patient and then in winning her own battle against the disease, has truly inspired all of us."

Contributing: David Jackson