Weeks of worry about Ebola infection ended yesterday for several dozen people who came off watch lists in the United States, but 120 others were still being monitored for symptoms as the US government ramped up its response to the virus.
Forty-three people who had contact with Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the disease in the US, 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.
While only three people have been diagnosed with the disease in the US, 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.”
Even as health officials cleared some of those who had been monitored for signs of Ebola, the US government prepared to try to remedy missteps that rattled Americans’ faith in the medical system after Duncan died on October 8, and two nurses who treated him were infected. The man newly appointed by President Barack Obama to oversee the response, lawyer Ron Klain, will start work this week with a mandate to ease anxiety over the virus and fix federal coordination with states to control its spread.
The government also was expected to issue strict new guidelines in the near future telling US health workers to cover skin and hair completely when dealing with Ebola patients. The old guidelines, based on World Health Organisation protocols, said workers should wear masks but allowed some skin exposure. The virus is spread through direct contact with the blood and bodily fluids of infected people.
In addition, the US military plans to create an emergency response team of infectious disease doctors, nurses and trainers to help in the event of an Ebola crisis in the US.
The 43 people removed from watch lists included Louise Troh, Duncan’s fiancée, and three others who shared an apartment with Duncan in Dallas in September.
“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,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said at a news conference.