Family of Texas Ebola patient ordered to stay home, comply with blood tests

[DonViejo]

By Amy Ellis Nutt October 2 at 8:03 AM

DALLAS -- Citing "an abundance of caution," Texas and Dallas County health officials ordered four close family members of hospitalized Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan to remain home and not see any visitors to prevent the spread of the disease.

The order was hand-delivered to the family at the Ivy Apartments, in northeast Dallas, on Wednesday night and legally requires the four relatives of Duncan to stay home until at least Oct. 19.

"The order is in place until the incubation period has passed and the family is no longer at risk of having the disease," a news release from Dallas health officials said. The family must also provide blood samples, agree to any other testing and report any symptoms to the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department immediately, including any fever above 100.5 degrees, headache, nausea, diarrhea or abdominal pain.

"We have tried and true protocols to protect the public and stop the spread of this disease," David Lakey, Texas's health commissioner, said in the news release. "This order gives us the ability to monitor the situation in the most meticulous way."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/02/family-of-texas-ebola-patient-ordered-to-stay-home-comply-with-blood-tests/

[ChisolmTrailDem]

1. Compensation for any lost wages? nt

[Mike Daniels]

5. Do you think the employers want these individuals at work until the quarantine period is over?

n/t

[ChisolmTrailDem]

7. That wasn't what I asked. I'm just wondering if this forced quarantine will cause the family

to lose money. From the information available, they don't seem to be fortunate enough to not be affected by lost wages from work while they are quarantined. I wonder if the county has some sort of fund that can be drawn from to see that this family isn't devastated by missed hours of work.

[bklyncowgirl]

2. According to CNN they've pretty much been left on their own.

The sheets which the guy used (which incidentally he shared with his girlfriend while he was sick) are apparently still on the bed, clothes and towels on plastic bags. Nothing about food delivery or other things to make quarantine more bearable. By the way the woman is a home health care worker.

[seveneyes]

4. shared with his girlfriend while he was sick

What part of "infectious bodily fluids" is hard to fucking understand here? What a fucking cluster fuck.

[seveneyes]

3. "an abundance of caution" ???

More like the bare minimum.

[Boomer]

6. Guaranteed method for making things worse

The very best way to ensure an Ebola epidemic in this country is to enforce draconian quarantines on people who can't afford to stay home from work and who need to get out of the house to shop for food. If these people are being monitored and aren't running a fever, THEY ARE NOT INFECTIOUS.

Locking them up and then threatening to treat them like criminals sends a very clear message "Avoid the authorities if you're sick."

If you're going to quarantine non-symptomatic people, in order to calm the fearful populace, then government needs to cover lost wages, provide shopping services, do everything in its power to make self-reporting the easiest and desireable course of action.

I'm feeling a lot LESS safe after reading this news.