Ashoka Mukpo says he’s not sure how he caught Ebola

American journalist Ashoka Mukpo, undergoing treatment for Ebola in Nebraska, said Monday that he doesn’t know exactly how he contracted the virus.

“It was something fluky,” he said on Twitter. “My best guess is I touched a surface and didn’t chlorinate fast enough.”

Mukpo, 33, a Rhode Island native, was working for NBC News and Vice News in Liberia when he became ill. He was evacuated to the United States, arriving at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha on Oct. 6.

Ebola is transmitted through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids, such as blood, saliva, feces and sweat.

“I was around a lot of sick people the week before I got sick,” Mukpo said. “Thought I was keeping a good distance, wish I knew exactly what went wrong.”

He said he didn’t regret traveling to the West African country to cover the Ebola crisis there: “That country was a second home to me and I had to help raise the alarm.”

More than 4,500 people have died of Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea since March, according to the World Health Organization.

Also on Monday, Emory University Hospital in Atlanta announced that it discharged an Ebola patient who had arrived there Sept. 9.

Federal and state health officials determined that the patient was free of the virus and posed no threat to public health, and he was discharged Sunday, the hospital said. It did not reveal details of the patient’s identity or where he went after being discharged.

Amber Vinson, a Texas nurse who contracted Ebola after treating a man who died of the virus last month in Dallas, is still in isolation at Emory.

For news about Ebola, follow @raablauren on Twitter.