--- title: Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola | TIME description: Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola. canonical: https://time.com/video/EJ3m56cA/ og:title: Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola og:description: Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola. og:url: https://time.com/video/EJ3m56cA/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EJ3m56cA/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola twitter:description: Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EJ3m56cA/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EJ3m56cA.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2014-10-02. Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola._ --- Jul 27, 2023 5:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Congo's Ebola Outbreak Has Spread to a City, Bringing Confirmed Cases to Three](/video/K4wkPvmd/) ### Congo's Ebola Outbreak Has Spread to a City, Bringing Confirmed Cases to Three [Second US Ebola Case](/video/Qj7qa6OI/) ### Second US Ebola Case [Fear and Ignorance Spread Ebola](/video/KlA2XSgt/) ### Fear and Ignorance Spread Ebola --- ## Transcript Now that the first case of Ebola has been diagnosed on American soil, what's next? How can we keep the virus from spreading? Health officials are now turning to a process known as contact tracing to figure out who else might have been exposed to the virus. The likeliest candidates are the medical technicians who treated him. That's because Ebola is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids, which health workers could have come in contact with while treating the patient. Beyond that are the patient's family members or people who have been living in close quarters with him since he developed the symptoms, including fever. Vomiting or diarrhea. These people will be monitored for 21 days, which is the incubation period of Ebola, to see if they develop similar symptoms. They won't be quarantined, but they might be asked to avoid traveling out of the country and spending time in crowded public areas. If anyone in either of these rings appears infected. Health officials will extend their monitoring to include anyone those people have been in contact with. Including their family members, school classmates, or work colleagues, until no more Ebola symptoms are discovered. Beyond that, if people in this ring appear infected, they too would be monitored for symptoms for 21 days, and the analysis would spread to their contacts. The passengers on the patient's flights from Liberia to the US aren't considered at high risk of exposure, since he was not experiencing symptoms then. Of course, all of this depends on honest and accurate information from the patient and his contacts about where they have been and with whom. Something that has been an issue in West Africa. There the stigma against Ebola has led patients to flee health volunteers who are attempting to trace contacts or fail to report people they have interacted with. 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