The US State Department has tracked down one of the Texas health workers who may have been exposed to an Ebola virus while attending to Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died at that Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on October 8.
Officials now say that the woman, a laboratory supervisor at the same hospital, is on a Caribbean cruise. They have, reportedly, already gotten in touch with the appropriate channels and have instructed the Cruise ship to turn around and take the suspected patient back to the United States so she can be placed under proper quarantine. The company also announced that, "The decision was made to proceed to Galveston to ensure the ship arrives there on time on Sunday morning." This is a precaution that is being implemented in case the hospital worker, who was handling fluids from the Ebola patient, had caught the virus.
An official statement from officials of Carnival Cruise Lines said that the woman is not showing any Ebola-like symptoms and has remained isolated inside her cabin voluntarily. "At this time, the guest remains in isolation on board the ship, and is not deemed to be a risk to any guests or crew. It is important to reiterate that the individual has no symptoms and has been isolated in an extreme abundance of caution." The ship has already been denied entry at some ports including Mexico and Belize.
The incubation period for the Ebola virus is between 2 and 21 days, and it has been 19 days since the laboratory supervisor have been working on the test samples from the deceased Ebola patient. She left Texas and went aboard the cruise ship on October 12, before the CDC had updated monitoring requirements for people who came in contact with Duncan.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already said that they consider the health worker as a "very low risk" case.
