Texas Health Officials Monitoring Several People in Dallas Ebola Case

Texas health officials say they are monitoring as many as 80 people who came into contact with an Ebola patient in Dallas.

Erikka Neroes with Dallas County Health and Human Services said Thursday that 12 to 18 people who interacted with Thomas Eric Duncan directly, as well as people they had contact with afterward, are part of a “contact investigation”. Among those being monitored for symptoms are Duncan’s family and five children from the Dallas area.

Neroes said none of the people being monitored have shown any symptoms. However, the Texas Department of State Health Services issued a public health control order Wednesday mandating that four members of Duncan’s family remain at home until Oct. 19, at which time the Ebola incubation period will have passed.

Officials are focusing on containment of the virus so that it doesn’t spread beyond Duncan, who recently traveled to Liberia and came into direct contact with an Ebola patient. Duncan is currently being treated at Dallas’ Texas Health Presbyterian, where he was recently sent home with antibiotics despite telling emergency room attendants that he had just returned from an area heavily affected by the disease.