Photos: President Obama hugs Nina Pham, the nurse who beat Ebola

[caption id=“attachment_1775703” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A lovely moment: A nurse who caught Ebola while caring for a Dallas patient who died of the disease walked out of a Washington-area hospital virus-free Friday and into open arms of the President. Obama met Pham in the Oval Office shortly after her release from a nearby hospital after recovering from the virus. Pham, who contracted the disease while treating a man who later died of Ebola in a Dallas hospital, had been undergoing treatment at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, since Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775705” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  The close contact between the president and the former patient also came as officials in New York tried to calm fears after a doctor was diagnosed with Ebola in that city. Pham said she felt “fortunate and blessed”. Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775707” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Nina Pham got a hug from President Barack Obama in the Oval Office at the White House. And outside the hospital where she had been since last week, she got hugs from the nation’s infectious disease chief, who oversaw her care. Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775709” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Dallas nurse Nina Pham is flanked by her sister Cathy and her mother during a news conference at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Although I no longer have Ebola, I know it may be a while before I have my strength back,” Pham said at the news conference. Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775711” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Pham thanked her health care teams in Dallas and at the NIH and singled out fellow Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly, who recovered after becoming infected in Liberia, for donating plasma containing Ebola-fighting antibodies as part of her care. Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775713” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Members of the Protect HazMat team prepare to clear the contents of the apartment of a health worker who was infected with the Ebola virus at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dalla. REUTERS[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775715” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  The apartment building where Nina Pham, the first U.S. health worker to be infected by the Ebola virus resides, is seen in Dallas, Texas. Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775719” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A man wearing a hazardous material suit prepares to remove a pet dog named Bentley from the home Nina Pham. “Bentley is safe,” Dallas spokeswoman Sana Syed said on her Twitter feed of the pet who has been under the spotlight after officials in Madrid put down the dog of a Spanish nurse who contacted Ebola while caring for a patient. Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775721” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Bentley, the dog belonging to Ebola patient Nina Pham, is seen playing with health care workers wearing Hazmat suits, in this recent undated combination of pictures released by the Dallas Animal Services and Adoption Center in Dallas. Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1775723” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Pham, who was being cared for at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, will be transferred to an isolation unit at Bethesda, Maryland-based NIH on Thursday evening, NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci told lawmakers at a congressional hearing on the handling of the virus in the United States. Reuters[/caption]