Ohio health officials started monitoring at least 100 people who had contact with the Dallas nurse who was assessed positive with Ebola virus after coming back to Texas from the Cleveland area.
The Dallas nurse named Amber Vinson, 29, might have been exhibiting symptoms of the Ebola virus as early as October 10 before her flight from Dallas to Cleveland, Ohio to prepare for her wedding and then back. Vinson together with another nurse treated the Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan who is the first Ebola patient to die in the US.
Initially, 16 people who had contact with Vinson during the flight were monitored. Officials stressed on Saturday that no one from the patients monitored turned positive to Ebola. But to date, more than a hundred people were advised by American health officials to contact Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be evaluated for Ebola symptoms.
The fast increase in number of people sent for monitoring is due to the identification of airline passengers who flew with Vinson between her flight from Dallas to Cleveland and the identification of people who also visited the dress shop where her bridesmaids visited to try on the dresses, state officials explained. The plane that Vinson was in, made a total of five flights loaded with passengers before the CDC notified the airline that the nurse may have been infected by Ebola.
Vinson's stepfather was immediately quarantined in his home in Akron suburb where the nurse stayed during her visit.
The Dallas nurse's family has spoken to defend her. Through a spokesman that Vinson followed the protocols mandated by the health officials and that her body temperature was checked and reported three times before she headed back to Dallas, Fox8 Cleveland reported.
The airline is still contacting its passengers who flew on plane number N220FR, an Airbus A320, before it was removed from service. The plane flew to Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and returned to Cleveland.
