WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola was declared free of the virus on Friday and walked out, under her own power and smiling, from the Maryland hospital where she had been treated.

Ms Nina Pham, who was transferred to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Oct. 16, thanked her physicians and told a press briefing, "It may be a while before I have my strength back."