A Dallas lab worker from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who is suspected to have handled Thomas Eric Duncan’s specimens has been quarantined on a Carnival Cruise ship on the coast of Belize, Fox News reports.
The ship has not been allowed to dock and the identified woman has been being monitored while in isolation. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki says that the woman has temperature checks daily and has not shown any symptoms of the virus. The worker found on this cruise ship through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s efforts to track down everyone who came into contact with Duncan, who was the first Ebola patient to die on U.S soil on Oct. 8th.
The doctor that has been monitoring the worker says that she is in good health.
Since being alerted on Wednesday (Oct.15) that this passenger was on board, Carnival Cruise Lines has released a statement.
“At no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with the testing samples. She is deemed by CDC to be very low risk. 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. We are in close contact with the CDC and at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board.”