Dozens Declared Free of Ebola Risk in Texas; No Longer Ebola in Spanish Nuring Assistant
At least one chapter of the Ebola saga neared a close Sunday, as most of the dozens of people who had direct or indirect contact here with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of Ebola, had been told by officials that they were no longer at risk of contracting the disease.
Mr. Duncan’s fiancée, Louise Troh, who nursed him in their cramped apartment while he suffered from diarrhea and who was put under state-ordered quarantine, was set to be declared Ebola-free by officials at the end of Sunday. So, too, were the paramedics who drove an ailing Mr. Duncan to a hospital and health care workers who drew or processed his blood. And a mandatory quarantine was lifted for a homeless man who later rode in the same ambulance as Mr. Duncan before it was disinfected.
The 21-day monitoring period ended Sunday and Monday for nearly all the roughly 50 people. It concludes as federal health officials are tightening the guidelines for the protective gear worn by health care workers treating Ebola patients.
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All of those whose monitoring was coming to an end had been potentially exposed to Mr. Duncan before he was admitted and put into isolation at the hospital on Sept. 28. They have been released from monitoring in stages. At least 14 of them had been released by Saturday. Others were released Sunday afternoon and some, like Ms. Troh, were released midnight Sunday. A few others may be released after Monday, officials said.
“It’s a significant hurdle for us to get over,” Mayor Mike Rawlings said. “It brings a little bounce in our step, because we know the science is working.”
The Ebola virus has an average eight-day to 10-day incubation period, but federal health officials recommend monitoring exposed people for symptoms for 21 days.
Dozens of others continue to be monitored. On Sunday, federal officials released updated numbers and said they were monitoring 149 people total, including the contacts of Mr. Duncan as well of Ms. Pham and Ms. Vinson. Most of those 149 are health care workers who treated Mr. Duncan. But some of them are passengers on a Frontier Airlines flight that Ms. Vinson took from Cleveland to Dallas the day before she showed symptoms. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said passengers on that flight, and those on Ms. Vinson’s first flight from Dallas to Cleveland, were at low risk.
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In Spain, officials said Sunday that tests showed that a nursing assistant who had been infected with Ebola has no traces of the virus left in her bloodstream. The medical worker, Teresa Romero, 44, contracted Ebola after caring for priests who got Ebola while doing missionary work in West Africa. Officials said Ms. Romero must undergo at least one more Ebola test to make sure she is virus free.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/us/ceo-of-texas-hospital-group-at-center-of-ebola-scare-apologizes-for-mistakes.html?_r=0
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