The caregiver who looked after Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola last week in a Texas hospital, has been infected with the disease, according to an official statement from the US Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Tests carried out on Saturday evening show that the nurse at Texas Presbyterian Hospital is infected with Ebola.”
“This news is understandably disturbing for the patient, her family, her colleagues and the city of Dallas,” the statement continued, which said the CDC and Texas Health Services “remain confident that a spread of the ‘infection can be prevented with adequate public health measures’.
Reinforced controls at airports
Thomas Eric Duncan, was of Liberian origin and was returning to the United States after a stay in his country. He left Liberia on September 19 to join the United States to visit relatives. He had no symptoms at the time. The first signs of the disease were reportedly on September 24 and 28. The patient was placed in isolation in the Texas hospital. The man’s family has also been quarantined to prevent further spread of the virus. It was the first case detected outside Africa in the United States.
From the entrance of the Ebola virus in the United States, the White House declared reinforced measures in the five airports where most of the passengers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea land, or about 150 passengers per day: the airports of JFK (New York) , Newark (New Jersey), Dulles (Washington), and the international airports of Atlanta and Chicago.
Passengers from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone will be further screened by the United States Customs and Border Protection. They will need to complete a medical questionnaire and undergo testing ( contactless) of temperature.
According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, the number of people infected with Ebola virus in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone exceeded the 8,000 threshold. Almost 2,800 new cases have been recorded in the past three weeks. And among those infected with the virus, 3,857 have died.
