Ebola Focus Shrinks to About 50 People in Texas

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Oct. 3, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- About 50 people in Texas are now being checked daily for possible Ebola infection, based on their prior contact with the Liberian national undergoing treatment in Dallas for the deadly virus, health officials said Friday.

None of the 50 currently has a fever or any other symptoms of Ebola, and most have a low risk of infection, Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said at a midday news briefing.

About 10 of the 50 people are considered at elevated risk for Ebola based on their contact with the Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan, who is being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Lakey said.

All of the people being monitored will receive twice-daily temperature checks, said Dr. Beth Bell, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

"There certainly is a possibility that some of the people who have been in very close contact with this patient might develop Ebola, and that's why this close monitoring is so important," Bell said.

The number of people under scrutiny has been pared down from an initial group of about 100, based on interviews that determined the amount of contact each person likely had with Duncan after he began showing symptoms of Ebola, Bell said.

Duncan is the first person diagnosed in the United States with Ebola, the often-lethal disease that has been sweeping through several West African nations since the spring.

The higher-risk people now being monitored include some health care workers who have been furloughed with pay, said Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins. None of the people considered at high risk are allowed to travel outside Dallas, and are receiving a daily visit from public health workers.

The low-risk individuals have no restrictions on travel, and are self-administering their temperature checks, Jenkins said. They speak with public health officials once a day by phone.

"If individuals are not adhering to these guidelines, we have law enforcement go check on these individuals to make sure they're OK, if needed," he said.

Four relatives of Duncan's remain quarantined in the Dallas apartment where he first showed signs of infection, Jenkins said. Officials went to the home Friday to remove sheets, clothes and towels that Duncan had used, which could be tainted with the virus.

Cleaners had been set to go into the home on Thursday to sanitize and remove the potential biohazard material, but could not because the U.S. Department of Transportation requires a specialized permit to haul away materials exposed to Ebola. The DOT considers Ebola a life-threatening "category A" infectious agent that can't be handled like normal medical waste.

"Even as we speak now, we don't have the permits in place to dispose of the soiled items," Jenkins said, adding, "I don't need a DOT permit to move material inside Dallas County to a secure location while we await those permits."

Jenkins said officials are considering moving Duncan's relatives to better housing with an in-home washer and dryer.

The family members -- Duncan's partner, Louise Troh, her son and two nephews in their 20s -- have been ordered to stay in the apartment until Oct. 19, according to published reports.

Besides Duncan's family members, people under observation include five schoolchildren as well as the three-member ambulance crew that transported Duncan on Sept. 28 to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

Duncan may have had contact with the five children at a home in Texas last weekend. The children attend four different schools, including a high school, a middle school and two elementary schools, The New York Times reported.

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