Amid growing concerns about the spread of the virus in the United States, authorities said yesterday a Texas health worker who may have had contact with specimens from an Ebola patient was quarantined on a cruise ship.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama appointed a former White House adviser as the US Ebola “czar” as the global death toll from the disease that has hit mostly three West African countries rose to more than 4,500.
Obama, facing criticism from some lawmakers over his administration’s handling of efforts to contain the virus, appointed Ron Klain, a lawyer who previously served as chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, to oversee the US response to the virus.
Klain’s appointment and the cruise ship incident highlighted anxiety over the threat from Ebola even though there have been just three cases diagnosed in the country, all in Dallas, Texas.
Ebola scare occurs in Pentagon parking lot when a woman vomits after getting off a bus
They were a Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed in the country, and two nurses who were among the team of health workers caring for him up to his death last week. The worst-hit countries have been Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where Ebola has taken 4,546 lives since the outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever began there in March, according to a new report on Friday from the World Health Organisation.
That marked a sharp increase from late July, when fewer than 730 people had died from the disease in West Africa.
The virus is spread through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person.
In the United States, Obama sought to convey leadership of the issue by appointing a “czar.”
Klain, the president of Case Holdings and general counsel at Revolution LLC, a technology-oriented venture capital firm based in Washington, has been asked to take on coordination of the entire US government response to Ebola, reporting directly to homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser.
The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker aboard the cruise ship, who did not have direct contact with the now-deceased Liberian patient, Duncan, but could have processed his bodily fluids, left on Sunday on a cruise from Galveston, Texas.
The health worker has been self-monitoring since October 6 and has not developed a fever or other symptoms of Ebola, the State Department said.
Carnival Cruise Lines said yesterday it had been notified by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that a passenger on the ship, the Carnival Magic, was a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian. It said she was deemed to be “very low risk.”
The ship can carry 3,690 passengers and 1,367 crew, according to the company’s website. Carnival is owned by Carnival Corp.
The State Department said the worker may have processed samples from Duncan 19 days ago. The maximum incubation window for the disease is 21 days, according to the CDC.
The worker and a companion voluntarily isolated themselves in their cabin.
Illustrating the degree of public worry in the United States, the Pentagon confirmed an Ebola scare yesterday in one of its parking lots when a woman who recently travelled to Africa vomited after getting off a bus headed to a high-level Marine Corps ceremony.
Officials said they did not know exactly where she had travelled to in Africa or whether she had a fever. The Pentagon said the woman was rushed to a local hospital.
Obama said he had no philosophical objection to a travel ban but that some travellers might attempt to enter the US by avoiding screening measures, which could lead to more Ebola cases, not fewer. On Thursday, he authorised calling up military reservists for the US fight against Ebola in West Africa.
In a sign the disease can be beaten, the World Health Organisation said yesterday that the West African country of Senegal was now Ebola-free, although it was still vulnerable to further cases.
The CDC has said it is expanding its search for people who may have been exposed to Amber Vinson – one of the nurses who treated the Ebola patient in Texas – to include passengers on a flight she made to Cleveland, Ohio, in addition to those on her Monday return trip to Texas. Vinson went to Ohio at the weekend on Frontier Airlines while running a slight fever.