Texas Tells Ebola Health Care Workers Not to Travel
Texas Tells Ebola Health Care Workers Not to Travel
3 minute read
Dr. Daniel Varga, Chief Clinical Officer, Senior Executive Vice President, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Dallas County Human and Health Service Director Zach Thompson held a news conference about the new Ebola case on Oct. 15, 2014 at Dallas County Commissioners Court in Dallas.David Woo—Dallas Morning News/Corbis
Health care workers who came in close proximity to the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. are being told they need to avoid public places or they may be involuntarily quarantined.
Under the new rules, which were issued late Thursday by the Texas Department of Health and affect almost 100 people, nurses who entered the hospital room of the first patient must stay away from restaurants and theaters, and forgo travel on airplanes or trains. The new directives from the state, which has seen each of the first three Ebola diagnoses on U.S. soil, lay out explicit guidelines for monitoring health care workers. They come as the federal government is under increasing pressure to do more to contain the virus. After officials were grilled by lawmakers Thursday, President Barack Obama on Friday tapped a longtime Washington aide to be an Ebola “czar” and coordinate the federal response. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has been under particularly harsh scrutiny for its handling of the crisis, is expected to issue new guidelines for health care workers treating Ebola patients soon, Bloomberg reports.
Under the new Texas directives, hospital employees directly involved in caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient who died Oct. 8, will be monitored with twice-daily check-ins for the 21-day duration of the disease’s incubation period. One of the daily check-ins must be conducted in person.
The state has threatened to subject anyone who ignores the guidelines to a “communicable disease control order”—or in other words, to quarantine them—but officials said they expect compliance.
“These are hometown health care heroes,” Clay Jenkins, a Dallas judge who has been closely involved in managing the containment effort, told the New York Times. “They want to do this. They’re going to follow these agreements.”
The announcement comes amid news that two health care workers who had treated Duncan later traveled out of state—Amber Joy Vinson by plane and another on a cruise ship. Vinson was diagnosed with Ebola following her flight and is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The other, who has not been unidentified, is self-monitoring in isolation aboard the cruise ship.
The new restrictions prevent both flights and cruises, along with any other “commercial transportation” or travel to “any location where members of the public congregate.”
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa.
PHOTOS: See How a Photographer is Covering Ebola’s Deadly Spread
Members of a Liberian Red Cross burial team, under contract from the Liberian Ministry of Health, remove the body of suspected Ebola victim Lorpu David, 30, on Sept. 18, 2014, in the Gurley street community in central Monrovia, Liberia.Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxMembers of a Liberian Red Cross burial team, remove the body of woman, 75, a suspected Ebola victim on Sept. 18, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxA burial team collects the body of a 75-year-old woman in a neighborhood called PHP in Monrovia, Liberia, Sept. 18, 2014. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxA resident of the West Point neighborhood covers his nose as a burial team leaves with a body in Monrovia, Liberia, Sept. 17, 2014. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxMembers of a burial team from the Liberian Red Cross remove the body of a man, a suspected Ebola victim, from a home in Matadi on Sept. 17, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia.
Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxA member of a Liberian Red Cross burial team is disinfected, with chlorine sprayed on by a colleague, after having removed the body of a man, a suspected Ebola victim, on Sept. 6, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia.
Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/Reportage by Getty ImagesResidents look on as the body of a man suspected of dying from Ebola lies in a busy street after it was reportedly dragged there to draw the attention of burial teams. For several days, his family had asked for the body to be picked up, to no avail. Monrovia, Liberia, Sept. 15, 2014. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxFriends and relatives weep as a burial team removes the body of a 75-year-old woman. Her neighbors insisted she had died of a stroke. Monrovia, Liberia, Sept. 18, 2014.Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxEric Gweah, 25, grieves as he watches members of a Red Cross burial team carry the body his father, Ofori Gweah, 62, a suspected Ebola victim, in a riverside area called Rock Spring Valley in central Monrovia, Liberia, Sept. 18, 2014. Ofori Gweah had endured Ebolaís telltale symptoms for six days, his family took him to treatment centers twice, only to be turned back. So many Ebola victims are dying at home due to a severe shortage of treatment centers in Monrovia, and many of the ill are infecting family members, neighbors and others in a ballooning circle of contagion. (Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times)Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxResidents discuss an Ebola awareness campaign in Monrovia, Liberia, Aug. 30, 2014. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxResidents of the West Point neighborhood attend church after a 10-day quarantine was lifted in Monrovia, Liberia, Aug. 31, 2014. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxJames Dorbor, 8, suspected to have Ebola, lays on the ground as his father Edward tried to get the boy to drink coconut water. They waited for James to be admitted into the JFK Ebola treatment center on Sept. 5, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/Reportage by Getty ImagesEdward Dorbor reacts after believing that his son, James Dorbor, 8, had died. However, the boy survived for a few additional hours before dying at the JFK Ebola treatment center on Sept. 5, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/Reportage by Getty ImagesMedical staff rush into the treatment facility, carrying James Dorbor, 8, suspected of having Ebola. Since the health workers weren't wearing the appropriate protection against Ebola, they positioned James' body in a way to limit exposure to the deadly virus. Monrovia, Liberia, Sept. 5, 2014. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxA relative grieves as members of a Liberian Red Cross burial team dress themselves in full protective clothing prior to removing the body of suspected Ebola victim, Ofori Gweah, 62, on Sept. 18, 2014 in central Monrovia, Liberia.Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/ReduxMedical staff spray down a small plastic bag containing the blood sample of Hawa Konneh, 9, a suspected Ebola victim, as she lays on the dirt wrapped in a shawl in front of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Ebola treatment center, as her mother, Masogbe, sits near to her prior to Hawa's passing away on Sept. 4, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/Reportage by Getty ImagesMarvin Gweah, 28, is overcome by emotion as members of a Liberian Red Cross burial team carry away the body of his father, Ofori Gweah, 62, a suspected Ebola victim, on Sept. 18, 2014 in central Monrovia, Liberia. Daniel Berehulak—The New York Times/Reportage by Getty Images
