Dozens Declared Free of Ebola Risk in Texas

UPDATE   Ebola fear ends for dozens on U.S. watch lists                        

REUTERS                                                               Oct. 20, 2014

By Anna Driver

DALLAS--Weeks of worry about Ebola infection ended on Monday for several dozen people who came off watch lists in the United States, but more than 260 others were still being monitored for symptoms as the U.S. government ramped up its response to the virus.

In Texas, 43 people who had contact with Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the disease in the United States, were cleared of twice-daily monitoring after showing no symptoms during a 21-day incubation period. The Texas health department said they included four people who shared an apartment with Duncan and had been in quarantine. It said 120 people in Texas were still being monitored.

"There's zero risk that any of those people who have been marked off the list have Ebola. They were in contact with a person who had Ebola and the time period for them to get Ebola has lapsed. It is over. They do not have Ebola," Judge Clay Jenkins, the top elected official in Dallas County, said at a news conference.

Three people were still in quarantine in Ohio, among 142 under different levels of monitoring, the state health department said. The three in quarantine had direct skin contact with a nurse who visited the state after being infected while treating Duncan....

While only three people have been diagnosed with the disease in the United States, the end of monitoring for some could ease widespread anxiety over Ebola in the country, where some lawmakers have called for a travel ban from West Africa to check the spread of the virus.

"There's no question, today is a milestone day," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said at a news conference. "It's a hurdle that we need to get over, but there are other hurdles to also jump."

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/20/us-health-ebola-usa-idUSKCN0I919B20141020

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BREAKING NEWS

NEW YORK TIMES                                               Oct 19, 2014

By Manny Ferdenez and Ken Slack

DALLAS — At least one chapter of the Ebola saga neared a close here Sunday, as most of the dozens of people who had direct or indirect contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of Ebola here, 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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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/us/ceo-of-texas-hospital-group-at-center-of-ebola-scare-apologizes-for-mistakes.html?_r=0