The possible EBOLA outbreak has recently sparked fears in Texas. But for the first time in weeks, Dallas will be given a measure of calm and fears will ease as 43 of 48 people on the original watch list have passed the 21-day maximum incubation period for the disease and are now in the clear.
CBS News reported Texas health officials said Monday that around 120 people are now being monitored for possible EBOLA outbreak infection because they may have had a direct or indirect contact with one of the three people in Dallas who had the disease.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings stated others who cared for the Liberian man who died because of EBOLA at a hospital in Texas are still at risk. That brings the total to 120 people now being monitored, with their wait period ending Nov. 7. The mayor added the number may change.
"There's no question today is a milestone day," Mayor Mike Rawlings told reporters Monday. For the first time, he spoke of another "magic date" officials were focusing on: Nov. 7. It is the time when all of those who are still being monitored in Texas, including dozens of nurses and other hospital workers, will have passed the 21-day maximum incubation period for EBOLA.
Rawlings spoke the day after the family of one of the infected nurses in Texas, 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson, said she had received permission to fly from both the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dallas County.
The incident where Vinson took two Frontier Airlines flights between Cleveland and Dallas which were before she was confirmed with EBOLA have triggered widespread concern for a possible outbreak. The incident also forced officials to increase the group of those being monitored and caused the authorities to advise 13 Texas passengers to stay at home while they are under observation.
Dallas County's Chief Executive Judge Clay Jenkins told reporters Monday that although Vinson had spoken to her contact at the Dallas County Health Department, the ultimate decision to allow her to fly came from the CDC in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Texas officials said they were breathing a little easier Monday as the monitoring period ended for many people who are on the outbreak's watch list. It is also a relief to them after a cruise ship scare ended with the vessel returning to port and a laboratory worker on board has tested negative for EBOLA.
Among those who are no longer in isolation for a possible outbreak are the family and friends of the Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, who became the first person diagnosed with EBOLA in Texas.
"I want to breathe, I want to really grieve, I want privacy with my family," Duncan's fiancée Louise Troh told The Associated Press.
According to The New York Times, city officials, local philanthropists and Wilshire Baptist Church were working to donate money to the Liberian man's fiancée and her family for new housing, clothing and other items, now that they were found to be free of EBOLA symptoms.
As said by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Head Dr. Anthony Fauci, those caring for Duncan in Texas were vulnerable for EBOLA because some of their skin was exposed. He also said the CDC is working on revisions to safety protocols. The earlier ones were based on a World Health Organization model for care in remote places hit by the outbreak, which are often outdoors, and without intensive training for health workers.
Health officials had previously allowed hospitals some flexibility to use available covering when dealing with suspected EBOLA patients. The new guidelines are expected to set safer and stricter standards: calling for full-body suits and hoods that protect worker's necks; setting rigorous rules for removal of equipment and disinfection of hands; and requiring a "site manager" to supervise the putting on and taking off of equipment.
According to an official who was familiar with the guidelines but not authorized to discuss them before their release, the guidelines are also expected to require a "buddy system" in which workers check each other as they come in and go out.
On Monday, no one was taking the seriousness of the disease in Dallas too lightly. The outbreak has led to over 4,500 deaths in Africa and continues to pose a potential risk to those being monitored in Texas and beyond.
But while some of those on the edges of the three EBOLA outbreak cases in Texas have worried about exposure, the end of the monitoring period on Monday was a reminder of EBOLA's mysteries and misperceptions.
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