EBOLA WAR: US quarantines 81

Thomas Eric Duncan

From Guinea, a country of 11 million people, the Ebola Virus Disease has spread to four other West African nations -Senegal, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leaone – killing more than 3,000
people in a matter of days.
The latest destination is Dallas, a major city in Texas, United States, where the first person diagnosed in the country has been quarantined alongside 80 other possible
contacts. The trip made by Thomas Eric Duncan, a former chauffeur, from Liberia to the US on September 20 has now raised controversies on how far the virus can travel and may force countries to rethink the flight restriction policy against countries where the disease has been endemic.
Until September 17 when President Barrack Obama sent 3,000 troops to help with the transportation of medical equipments, the US been sitting on the sidelines.
Speaking at the US Centre for Disease Control, Atlanta, Obama announced a comprehensive plan, which involves the construction of 17 treatment centres with 100 bed facilities each.

Tracing contacts

A CDC team is in Dallas helping to find anyone Duncan may have come in contact with, Frieden said.
Once those people are identified, they will be monitored for 21 days – taking their temperatures twice a day – in cooperation with local and state health officials, Frieden said. Some school-age children have been in contact with the Ebola patient, but the students haven’t
exhibited symptoms of the deadly virus, authorities said. Five students at four different schools came into contact with the man, Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles said. The children are being monitored at home, and the schools they attended remain open, he said. Paramedics who transported the patient to the hospital have been isolated, Rawlings’ chief of staff said. They have not shown symptoms of the disease so far, Frieden said. The ambulance used to carry the patient was still in use for two days after the transport, city of Dallas spokeswoman Sana Syed said. But she emphasised that the paramedics decontaminated the ambulance, as they do after every transport, according to national standards.