London – An Army medic has recovered from ebola after becoming the first person to be treated with an experimental drug.
Corporal Anna Cross, 25, was the first member of the Armed Forces to be diagnosed with the deadly virus after volunteering as a nurse at a British-built crisis centre in Sierra Leone.
She was evacuated by the RAF on March 12 and treated in isolation at London’s Royal Free Hospital, where she allowed doctors to use the MIL77 drug from China.
Despite losing 22lb while ill, Corporal Cross has now been declared free of the disease and discharged from hospital.
Yesterday, she said she had agreed to take the new drug after ‘careful consideration’, adding: ‘I said, “I have ebola, so … I’ll have what drugs you think are good for me”.’
But experts said it was too soon to know what role MIL77 had played in her recovery.
The Army Reservist from Cambridge said she cried when told she was free of the virus.
She praised the medical team, adding: ‘Thanks to them, I’m alive.’
Corporal Cross plans to return to the Army as soon as she is fit again.
Daily Mail