EBOLA VIRUS SPREADS BEYOND WEST AFRICA
Thomas Eric Duncan of Monrovia, Liberia, is the first patient to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the USA. While visiting relatives, he developed symptoms and is being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas. Since December, there have been 7,492 cases and 3,439 deaths attributed to the Ebola virus in five countries in West Africa and the USA, according to the World Health Organization.
Sponsored by
SOURCES: World Health Organization, USA TODAY research. Note: A separate outbreak of the Ebola virus, which is not related to the outbreak in West Africa, is occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As of Oct. 1, 2014.
Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY
Health authorities are looking for a man who was transported in Dallas Fire-Rescue ambulance No. 37 after Ebola patient Michael Eric Duncan.(Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images / Dallas PD)
DALLAS — A homeless panhandler who rode in the same ambulance after Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was found Sunday after an extensive manhunt.
The 52-year-old man — who city officials identified as Michael Lively — was admitted to Parkland Memorial Hospital Sunday afternoon after being taken into custody by Dallas police officers. County Judge Clay Jenkins said he was taken to the hospital's psychiatric ward.
"He exhibited clear indicators that he needed to be taken to the psych ward," Jenkins said.
Parkland spokesman Mike Malaise said Lively was later removed by health officials and taken to an undisclosed location for isolation.
The manhunt began Saturday after Lively walked away from a local hospital where he had been taken to be checked out.
Officials said was the next person to ride in the ambulance Sept. 28 after Duncan was taken to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Duncan remained in critical condition Sunday.
Dallas Fire-Rescue ambulance No, 37 was taken out of service on Tuesday, but has since been returned to the fleet after being decontaminated.
Hours before Lively was again located on Sunday, Jenkins confirmed that officials were looking for a "low-risk individual." He and other officials at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention news conference Sunday said there was no need for community concern, since the man was not showing symptoms of Ebola.
"I want to stress to you that this person has not committed a crime," Jenkins said. "They are a low-risk individual — and I emphasize low-risk individual — and we are doing this as a precautionary measure. You have zero chance of contracting the Ebola virus from an asymptomatic individual."
Officials repeatedly emphasized that they simply wanted to find the man so that he could be taken to a "comfortable and compassionate place" during the 21-day monitoring period that follows possible exposure to the Ebola virus.
"The concern for anyone who's had contact is not that they may infect other people," explained CDC director David Frieden. "They are not a risk to others. The only thing that we need to ensure is that their temperature is monitored, and if they develop a fever that they're immediately assessed, isolated, and given the appropriate care."
David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, explained that officials were able to find the homeless man on Saturday, "monitor him, check his temperature and evaluate him, and told him to stay there and that we needed to follow him... and he left."
Still, even as officials sought to project a sense of calm, a manhunt involving dozens of Dallas police officers and sheriff's department deputies was on to find the homeless man.
On Sunday afternoon, Lively was located near NorthPark Center. He was initially dressed in street clothes. He was escorted away in full surgical garb and a mask.
Video Keywords
Dallas authorities have tracked down a homeless man who rode in an Ebola patient's ambulance and may have been exposed to the virus. VPC
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Lively was able to walk away Saturday because officials did not have the authority to hold him.
"In America, people are free, and they can do whatever they want," Rawlings said. "We did not have the correct paperwork."
Sources told WFAA-TV that authorities were working late Sunday to obtain a control order to prevent Lively from walking away again.
Officials said there are 10 people who have been determined to have had contact with Duncan. Of those, seven are health care workers and three are family or community contacts.
Thirty-eight other people — including Lively — are people who authorities could not rule out as having had some kind of contact. All 48 of them will be tracked during the 21-day incubation.
None of those individuals has presented any symptoms of the virus, officials said
Frieden said he's confident that officials will stop the Ebola virus "in its tracks."
Officials also repeatedly emphasized that Ebola can only be spread by having contact with someone who is showing symptoms of the virus, or with their bodily fluids.
"It's very important that we follow the science and don't overreact in this situation," Jenkins said.
CDC officials did not take any questions from local reporters during Sunday's conference call, which has become a daily briefing since Thomas Eric Duncan became the first Ebola patient to fall ill outside of West Africa.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1xgXDIq
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1vGNp2O
0 comments:
Post a Comment