Ebola nurse gets shower of licks from 'best friend' Bentley

The Dallas nurse treated for Ebola had an emotional reunion on Saturday with her "best friend", Bentley, a King Charles Spaniel.

The dog showered Nina Pham with licks after being released from three weeks in quarantine being monitored for the deadly virus.

He had been kept in isolation and cared for by kennel workers in protective suits.

Pham, 26, became the first person in the United States to be infected with Ebola after treating an infected man. She was discharged from a National Institutes of Health hospital in Maryland on Oct 24, after being declared free of the virus.

"After I was diagnosed with Ebola, I didn't know what would happen to Bentley and if he would have the virus," Pham told reporters.

"I was frightened that I might not know what happened to my best friend."

Bentley has been under the spotlight after officials in Madrid put down the dog of a Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola while also caring for a patient.

Wearing a maroon handkerchief around his neck and a silver bone charm on his collar, Bentley licked Pham's face and wagged his tail as he was cradled by the nurse in front of the cameras.

The dog was fed by decontamination crews working to clean Pham's apartment shortly after she was diagnosed with the virus and later evacuated by a team wearing protective gear.

Bentley became a minor Internet star as pictures and videos of him running around his isolation cell and playing with workers in protective suits were released by the city - after they had first been shown to Pham.

Bentley was declared Ebola-free at the end of October.

(China Daily 11/03/2014 page10)