Number of those in contact with Ebola patient rising, but no cases evident

Staff report

COLUMBUS

State health officials continue to revise the number of people in Ohio being watched for potential Ebola infections.

And that’s to be expected, they say, as residents who are self-monitoring for symptoms leave the state or return.

One number that has not changed is the instances of confirmed Ebola infections in the state — zero.

As of Tuesday, there were 159 people who had some sort of contact with a Texas nurse who was diagnosed with the virus. Of those, 137 did not have direct contact but were in the vicinity during the woman’s weekend visit to the Akron area.

Fourteen counties, including Mahoning, Trumbull, Geauga and Stark, have seven or fewer contacts, and those figures are not being broken out by county in order to protect the privacy of individual contacts, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

Other counties with seven or fewer contacts are: Belmont, Erie, Franklin, Hamilton, Hardin, Lake, Lorain, Putnam, Tuscarawas and Wayne.

Additionally, 18 people who were within a few feet of the Texas nurse were being monitored by public health officials for symptoms. Three people who had direct contact have been quarantined to prevent contact with the public.

The overall numbers were up slightly from Monday’s results, when the Ohio Department of Health reported 142 contacts statewide. Over the weekend, the contact count was 153.

Read more of the statistics in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.