Dozens declared free of Ebola risk in Texas
Manny Fernandez and Kevin Sack

DALLAS: -- At least one chapter of the Ebola saga neared a close here Sunday, as most of the dozens of people who had direct or indirect contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of Ebola, had been told by officials they were no longer at risk of contracting the disease.

Duncan's fiancee, Louise Troh, who nursed him in their cramped apartment while he suffered from diarrhea and who was put under state-ordered quarantine, was set to be declared Ebola-free by officials at the end of Sunday.

So, too, were the paramedics who drove an ailing Duncan to a hospital and health care workers who drew or processed his blood. And a mandatory quarantine was lifted for a homeless man who later rode in the same ambulance as Duncan before it was disinfected.

The 21-day monitoring period ended Sunday and Monday for nearly all the roughly 50 people. It concludes as federal health officials are tightening the guidelines for the protective gear worn by health care workers treating Ebola patients.

Two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas who treated Duncan - Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson - have contracted Ebola. Although officials have not determined how they became infected, they have focused on their use of personal protective gear.

Full story: http://www.theage.com.au/world/dozens-declared-free-of-ebola-risk-in-texas-20141020-11900q.html

-- The Age 2014-10-20

It's nice to have a little bit of good news.

Yes, it is nice to have some good news. I hope this also means that they have confirmed the upper end of the incubation period at 21 days, and communicable only while symptomatic. Having people released after 21 days and still infectious would have been a disaster. I hope on the heels of this they lock down this bug.

We still have the two nurses who were infected in Dallas and the people they have and are associating with. I wish them a full recovery, and hope the workers around them escape infection.

One of the nurses was transferred by jet to Emory Medical University and Teaching Hospital in Atlanta Georgia. It doesn't get any better than Emory. In fact I have wondered why the first man in Texas wasn't taken to Baylor which is equal to Emory.

In any event it's great to have some good news and I hope the authorities have contained this. I really do.

Yes, celebrations all around. Never mind what's happening in Africa - we can forget about that - as long as America's safe. Not America's problem, right? Now to keep ebola-carrying Isil from crossing our borders. Thank you, Ted Cruz, for showing the way. (America's right will not recognize their own policies used as bitter sarcasm.)

There were several suggestions on the news yesterday that Nina Pham's boyfriend was hospitalized with symptoms of Ebola, but have not heard it mentioned today. What's up with that?

Good news.

But keeping things in perspective, let's remember that the really big tragedy is in West Africa. The deaths in America are sad and very unfortunate but there was little danger of a pandemic. To help us understand, a little dark humor:

"more Americans have been married to Kim Kardashian than have died from Ebola"

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