2nd Possible Ebola Patient Being Monitored in Texas

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 2, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Health officials in Texas are closely monitoring a potential second Ebola patient who had close contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, according to news reports.

In related news, officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said they are hoping to fast-track production of Zmapp, an experimental drug that may help treat the deadly virus but is currently in short supply.

In an interview Wednesday with WFAA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said the second potential patient is one of several people who had contact with Duncan, a Liberian national who arrived in the United States on Sept. 20 to visit family in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"Let me be real frank to the Dallas County residents: The fact that we have one confirmed case, there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient," Thompson said. "So this is real. There should be a concern, but it's contained to the specific family members and close friends at this moment."

Thompson said the public isn't at risk because health officials have the virus contained, WFAA-TV reported.

Overall, federal health officials are monitoring up to 18 people who may have been in contact with Duncan.

Some of the 18 people are members of the man's family. The group of 18 also includes five schoolchildren as well as the three-member ambulance crew that transported Duncan on Sunday to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, according to published reports.

Duncan may have had contact with the five children at a home in Texas over the weekend. The children attend four different schools, including a high school, a middle school and two elementary schools. The schools will remain open but will undergo a thorough cleaning as a precaution, The New York Times reported.

The ambulance workers have tested negative for the virus that has been ravaging several West African nations, and are confined to their homes for observation, the Associated Press reported.

"If anyone develops fever, we'll immediately isolate them to stop the chain of transmission," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the AP.

People who had contact with Duncan will be monitored for fever during the next 21 days, which is the maximum incubation period for Ebola, Frieden said.

Duncan flew to the United States from Liberia after quitting his job with a shipping company in Monrovia, Liberia, one of the West African nations battling the Ebola outbreak, the Times reported. He first developed Ebola symptoms Sept. 24 and sought care two days later, but was released from the hospital. Some hospital officials weren't aware at the time that he had been in West Africa, the AP reported.

He was taken to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital after his condition worsened.

Duncan is the first patient ever diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, and the first patient outside of Africa to ever be diagnosed with the Ebola Zaire strain, Frieden said at a Tuesday news briefing.

"The bottom line here is that I have no doubt we will control this case of Ebola so it will not spread widely in this country," Frieden said at the briefing.

The Times also reported late Wednesday that officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are discussing increasing production of Zmapp with Caliber Biotherapeutics, a Texas-based company that uses tobacco plants to produce the medicine in large quantities.

Separate efforts in collaboration with two of the world's biggest charities -- the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust -- would have HHS coordinate production of Zmapp using animal cells. According to the Times, that method would take longer, but, once up and running, would tap into the resources of the world's pharmaceutical companies, vastly increasing output.

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