WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas health officials have ordered four members of a family the Ebola patient was staying with in Dallas to remain in their home, and they’ve posted law enforcement outside to be sure.
Federal and Texas health officials are reaching out to about 100 people to determine if they have had contact with the Ebola patient hospitalized in Dallas.
But Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said Thursday they’ve only identified a handful of individuals so far who may really have been exposed and therefore will be monitored.
Texas state health commissioner David Lakey said the unusual quarantine step with the four people who stayed with the Ebola patient was so health officials could do the necessary monitoring, including checking them for fevers over the next 21 days.
“We didn’t have the confidence we would have been able to monitor them the way that we needed to,” Lakey said.
Texas officials are delivering groceries to the home where the patient stayed and are preparing to have it professionally cleaned.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the Ebola patient’s belongings and clothes and household trash, possibly including his sheets, are bagged inside the house so the people who live there cannot come into contact with them until they are removed.
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