| USA TODAY | - |
Texas
health officials have placed the Dallas family of a Liberian national
infected with Ebola under quarantine and ordered them not to leave their
home or have any contact with outsiders for 21 days without approval of
the local or state health department.
Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
Residents at the apartment complex in Dallas, Texas where an Ebola
patient was living at say they have received very little information
from health officials.
VPC
The "control order" also requires the family of Thomas Eric Duncan to be available to provide blood samples and agree to any testing required by public health officials.
Officials said Thursday that the four or five family members could face criminal charges for violating the order, which was delivered to them in writing Wednesday evening.
Duncan, who is in serious condition with Ebola at Texas Health Presybyterian Hospital, recently arrived in the United States from Liberia.
Ebola has infected 7,178 people and has killed 3,338 in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal and Nigeria, the World Health Organization says. The outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal — which took swift, decisive action to control the virus — are likely over.
In other countries, however, the number of cases has been doubling every three weeks, and the CDC estimates that the disease could affect up to 1.4 million people by January if it's not quickly controlled.
In an exclusive interview, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper spoke with one family member, identified only as Louise, who said she, two nephews and one of her children are in the house under quarantine.
Louise, who has had at least one child with Duncan, said Duncan had suffered diarrhea and had been sweating during the night before he was hospitalized.
She told Anderson that the sweat-soaked sheets are still on the bed, but that she had put the towels he used into plastic bags that are still in the apartment.
Louise told CNN in an interview to be broadcast Thursday evening that she is praying a lotbut has no symptoms at this point. "She's taking her own temperature every hour, she says, she's taking the temperature of the young people who are in the apartment with her," Cooper said.
The Texas order covering the four or five family members also instructs them to report any symptoms immediately to Dallas County Health and Human Services. Symptoms include fever above 100.5 degrees, headache, nausea, diarrhea or abdominal pain.
The order remains in effect for 21 days — the incubation period for Ebola. After Oct. 19, family members without any Ebola symptoms are no longer considered to be at risk.
None of the family members is showing symptoms of the deadly disease, but health officials said they issued the order "out of an abundance of caution." Ebola can only be spread when someone is showing symptoms, through direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood.
"We have tried and true protocols to protect the public and stop the spread of this disease," Texas Health Commissioner Dr. David Lakey said. "This order gives us the ability to monitor the situation in the most meticulous way."
Zach Thompson, with the Dallas County Health and Human Services, told WFAA-TV on Thursday that health officials want to interview around 80 people who may be linked to Duncan.
Thompson told News 8 Daybreak that "does not mean that they are showing any symptoms, but that's the number of people that has come in contact with the patient."
Carrie Williams with the Texas Department of State Health Services said health officials are working from a list of about 100 potential or possible contacts.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we're starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient's home," Williams said. "The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection."
Texas law allows the state health department and the local health authority to issue control measures to a person who is ill with, has been exposed to or is the carrier of a communicable disease. Control measures can include isolation, quarantine and preventive therapy. If a person does not follow these orders, they can be enforced by the courts and the person can face criminal charges.
Liberian authorities, meanwhile, say they will prosecute Duncan when he returns home for allegedly lying on his airport screening questionnaire about having had contact with an infected person.
With an Ebola epidemic raging in West Africa, passengers leaving Liberia are being screened for fever and are asked if they have had contact with anyone infected by Ebola.
On the form obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by a government official, Duncan answered "no" to questions about whether he had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of someone who had died in an area affected by Ebola.
Neighbors say Duncan had days earlier helped carry to a taxi a pregnant woman who later died of Ebola. Her illness at the time was believed to be pregnancy-related.
At the time Duncan left, it's not clear if he knew of the woman's diagnosis. Officials have said Duncan was showing no symptoms when he boarded the plane and he was therefore not contagious. Ebola can only be spread through the bodily fluids of people showing signs of the disease.
"He will be prosecuted" when he returns to Liberia, Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the board of directors of the Liberia Airport Authority, told reporters.
He said that people like Duncan and Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American with Ebola who traveled to Nigeria and infected people there, have brought a "stigma" upon Liberians living abroad.
Contributing: WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth; Associated Press
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