Varying levels of contact put 50 under monitoring

DALLAS – Fifty people in Texas will be monitored daily for possible Ebola symptoms, including 10 who are considered at high risk because of their exposure to a patient now being treated for the deadly virus, public health officials said Friday.

The larger group includes health care workers and the ambulance team that brought the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where he has been in isolation and undergoing treatment since Sunday. Included in the smaller group are four people who were in the apartment where Duncan stayed after his arrival from Liberia on Sept. 20.

The four – a woman, her 13-year-old son and two adult nephews – have been quarantined in the apartment. A hazardous materials team arrived Friday morning to clean the home.

Duncan is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. It is believed he contracted the virus in Liberia while helping to move a pregnant woman who later died. He then took a series of flights to visit family in Dallas.

Los Angeles Times