Thursday, October 23, 2014
CLEVELAND (AP) — Health officials believe they’ve identified everyone in Ohio known to have had contact with or been near a Dallas nurse who visited Akron before being diagnosed with Ebola, the state epidemiologist said Wednesday. Doctors no longer detect Ebola in the nurse’s body, her family said.
Dr. Mary DiOrio said during a telephone news conference that monitoring of those 164 people should end Nov. 4. Officials again emphasized that no one in Ohio has shown symptoms of the disease.
“Obviously it’s been a stressful time for those being monitored,” DiOrio said.
Vinson, 29, visited the Akron area from Oct. 10 to Oct. 13 to prepare for her wedding. She contracted Ebola while caring for the only person in the U.S. who has died from the disease, which is ravaging West African countries.
Her family’s statement, released Wednesday, said officials at Emory University Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention couldn’t detect Ebola in Vinson as of Tuesday evening. Doctors usually do two tests a day apart before saying they can’t detect the virus. It’s unclear how many tests Vinson has had.
Those on the monitoring list include Ohio residents who had direct contact with Vinson while she was in the state, those who visited a bridal shop in Akron where her bridesmaids tried on dresses on Oct. 11 and those who flew on the same planes as her to Cleveland and back to Dallas. She was diagnosed with Ebola upon her return to Dallas.
Three people are quarantined at home, including Vinson’s stepfather.
Mike Abrams, president of the Ohio Hospital Association, said during a news conference there are hospitals in Ohio prepared to fully care for Ebola patients while other facilities are capable of diagnosing, isolating and transporting someone with the disease.
A state Ebola hotline has received 2,000 calls in the last week, but the number of callers has begun to diminish, officials said.