Dallas Health Workers Under Strict Quarantine Rules Following Ebola Scares
Following two incidences with two Dallas nurses getting Ebola, Texas officials have instructed health workers to stay out of public places.
The instruction comes after 29-year-old nurse Nina Pham and 26-year-old nurse Amber Vinson, who both worked closely with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, became infected with the virus. The nurses were in "close contact" with Duncan before he died last week at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
The U.S. has been on heightened alert after it was learned that Vinson traveled on a commercial airline from Cleveland to Dallas one day before she started showing symptoms of the disease, which is when it's contagious to others.
Another health worker who sampled Duncan's bodily fluids 18 days ago was put under quarantine while being on a Carnival Magic cruise ship in the Caribbean this week. The cruise ship is heading back to the U.S. after Mexico and Belize refused to take the sick American patient to shore.
Texas health officials have ordered the 70 health workers who had contact with Duncan to stay in their homes so they may be monitored during the 21 day Ebola contagion period.
The hospital workers will reportedly be monitored twice a day, including one face-to-face interaction by health officials. According to USA Today, those who fail to follow the rules of the newly-set quarantine "may be subject to a communicable disease control order."
President Obama has promised that there will be a more aggressive approach to containing the Ebola virus, but he has refused to agree to the suggestion by many Republicans that the U.S. ban flights into the country from West Africa.
