The first wave of people who had contact with the original Dallas Ebola patient were taken off a watch list early Monday, marking a moment of relief for the 48 individuals even as dozens more continue to be monitored by officials.
Midnight (1 .am. ET) marked the end of 21 days since the diagnosis of Thomas Eric Duncan, who was treated and died Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Ebola has a 21-day incubation period, and when a case is confirmed officials monitor anyone who had contact with that person for three weeksl
'We are so happy this is coming to an end, and we are so grateful that none of us has shown any sign of illness,' Louise Troh, Duncan's fiancée and mother to the couple's son, said in a statement late Sunday. Troh and three other people have been under quarantine, ordered by the government not to go out in public.
None of those who came in contact with Duncan before he was put in isolation have shown signs of contracting the virus.
'[I'm] looking forward to shaking some hands of 48 people who need to get back into society,' Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.
Amid the relief, more than 70 health workers who cared for Duncan when he was in isolation remain under watch.
Two nurses at the hospital, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, contracted the deadly virus and have been hospitalized. 'They are blameless in this situation,' Jenkins added. 'They are victims of Ebola. They are not at fault for contracting this disease in any way.'
Troh's daughter, Youngor Jallah, who also ended her monitoring period Monday, has stayed in an apartment she shares with her partner and their children, according to http://ift.tt/1drmXFk.
'I'm telling you, just to step outside will be so great,' she told the AP. 'To hug my mom and grieve for Eric, not over the phone like we've been doing, but in the flesh.'
Read more at NBC Dallas-Fort WorthMore than 9,000 people in West Africa have been infected with Ebola, and half have died, sparking fears in the U.S. and elsewhere that the virus could spread.
Ebola spreads by close physical contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is infected and symptomatic. But despite the threat of the Ebola crisis growing exponentially in West Africa, Americans have little reason to fear the disease spreading here, experts told NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday.
The Pentagon is fielding a 30-person expeditionary medical support team to provide immediate assistance to civilian health professionals in the U.S. if additional Ebola cases arise. The team will include 20 critical care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease and five trainers in infectious disease protocols, the Pentagon said in a statement.
New York Senator Charles E. Schumer on Sunday called on the Center for Disease Control to station a team of experts in New York City, saying JFK and Newark airports receive the majority of traffic coming from West Africa.
http://ift.tt/1drmXFk contributed to this report.
First published October 20 2014, 1:36 AM
Miranda Leitsinger
Miranda Leitsinger is a reporter at NBC News. She started this role in February 2011. Leitsinger is responsible for long-term enterprise and breaking news coverage. Her beats include recovery from natural disasters and mass shootings, the LGBT community, income inequality, immigration and the Boy Scouts. Leitsinger previously worked at CNN.com in Hong Kong as a digital producer, where she collaborated with the network's television staff in Asia to produce enterprise stories for the website. Before that she worked as a reporter at http://ift.tt/1drmXFk for seven years in various cities, including New York, Miami, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Bangkok, Thailand, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. She covered the aftermath of 9/11 in Florida, the 2004 tsunami in Asia, the initial military tribunal at Guantanamo and Cambodia's bid to recover from genocide and the ensuing decades of civil war.Leitsinger, a San Francisco native, lives in New York.
