Posted on 10/15/2014 3:00:17 PM PDT by knak
BELTON (October 15, 2014) A North Belton Middle School student was on the same flight as a Dallas nurse who tested positive for Ebola Tuesday night after caring for a man who was the first person diagnosed in the U.S. with the potentially deadly virus.
School officials learned Wednesday afternoon that the student was on the Frontier Airlines flight Monday from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and in a letter to parents said the student attended classes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“According to statements from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...and Frontier Airlines, the passenger did not show any symptoms during the flight, and the risk of exposure for other passengers on the flight was low,” the letter signed by school Principal Joe Brown said.
The student is not showing symptoms and is being monitored by the Bell County Health Department and the Texas Department of State Health Services, the letter said.
“Because of this, there is no imminent risk to your child,” the letter said.
Amber Joy Vinson, 29, was in isolation Wednesday at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that she took a flight on Monday to Cleveland, a day before becoming ill.
She reported a fever Tuesday and then was taken to isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian.
Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth had 132 passengers aboard.
The plane’s crew said the nurse had no symptoms of Ebola during the flight, but the next morning she developed a fever and on Tuesday night tested positive for Ebola.
Infected Ebola patients are not considered contagious until they have symptoms, but the CDC is asking the passengers to call the health agency so they can be monitored.
CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said the nurse should not have traveled by air because she had been exposed to Ebola.
Vinson was being transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta later in the day Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said.
Emory University Hospital is one of four hospitals with specialized isolation units to care for Ebola with less risk of spread to health care workers.
Emory has treated three other Ebola patients, two of them have recovered and been released.
Burwell says all four hospitals have been asked about whether they can accept more Ebola patients should the need arise.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said at a news conference earlier Wednesday that the health care provider at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital had been monitoring herself for symptoms of Ebola.
It's not clear how she contracted the virus during care she provided for Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, the Liberian man who died of Ebola at the hospital.
“Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored. The type of monitoring depends on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus,” the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a website posting.
Emergency responders in hazardous materials suits went to work Wednesday morning to decontaminate the Dallas apartment of the second hospital worker.
Emergency crews Wednesday spread before dawn Wednesday out at the northeast Dallas apartment of the second woman, who lived alone.
A hazmat-outfitted worker sprayed a substance on the door of a second-floor unit.
A statement in English and Spanish, being handed out to neighbors, advises them that "a health care worker who lives in your area has tested positive for Ebola."
Nurse Nina Pham, 26, meanwhile, was listed in good condition Wednesday at the hospital after testing positive for the virus.
She was also among about 70 staffers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for Duncan.
Pham, a graduate of Texas Christian University's nursing school, was monitoring her own temperature and went to the hospital Friday night as soon as she discovered was running a low fever.
Staff members who worked with Duncan were advised to take their temperatures twice daily.
Christina Tran, a family friend, says Pham understood the risks involved in helping to care for Duncan.
Tran says Pham's parents are praying for their daughter's recovery.
Officials say Pham wore full protective gear while treating Duncan and say she doesn’t know how she became infected.
They’re looking into how she removed her personal protective gear, which includes a gown, two sets of gloves, a face mask and an eye shield.
Who cares if the patient didn’t exhibit symptoms. She knew she may have been infected. Charge her with attempted manslaughter.
If this child comes down with it....Not good.
She had fever before she got on board that flight, nuff said..doesn’t matter that she didnt puke or bleed, who cares, she had a fever that’s pretty much a done deal
Is the student being quarantined?
Way back in the forties we were quarantined for 2 weeks for chicken pox. I loved school, and thought it was unfair.
When I showed up on Day 13 at Sunday Mass, Sister Superior yanked me out of my class pew and isolated me up in the choir loft!
She took care of an Ebola patient...she has a fever after the patient dies...she gets on a plane...she is around other people....Attempted murder. She knew exactly what she was doing. If she didn’t then she makes Nurses look dumb.
Can someone tell me again how the CDC can control this virus?
Well the Liberian Patrick Sawyer who imported Ebola to Nigeria was actively vomiting on his flight and none of the fellow pax have come down with anything so I wouldn’t hold my breath, literally or figurately. The infected nurses, on the other hand, were working with massive amounts of infectious bodily fluids.
But it is perfectly ok for ebos from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to fly here.
Yeah, got it.
.
Yes, I remember things being like that. I was at a Catholic boarding school, and I was several times kept in bed all day with illnesses. How I hated those long solitary days. As an adult, I can see that we were being cared for properly, and it was for the best.
That headline could be read a couple of different ways.
Patrick Sawyer did not vomit on his flight.
At the airport the last week, I have been giving anybody that looks like they could be from Africa a wide berth.
At a place like MIA there are plenty of them.
All International Airports should have armed troops and medics putting all arrivals from infected countries through intensive screening and quarantine.
FEDGOV is not doing it’s job.
Nigeria also had some luck. Although the first patient, a businessman named Patrick Sawyer, was vomiting on his flight in, none of the roughly 200 others on the plane fell ill. Others did after helping him into a taxi to a hospital.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/health/ebola-outbreak-in-nigeria-appears-to-be-over.html?_r=0
The NYTimes is wrong about one thing though, he infected the woman next to him. Here's another account:
Patrick Sawyer died Friday after suffering extreme bouts of vomiting and diarrhea on a flight from Liberia to Nigeria, leading to fears he may have spread the virus to fellow passengers.
My bad. I confused the names of the now famous Ebola men.
“If this child comes down with it....Not good.”
Especially if this child goes to school where hundreds of other children are at. Nothing like spreading the wealth, if infected.
This is a kid in Waco, TX. Waco is a 100 miles south of Dallas. The other passengers are now at the four corners of the earth. Yank that nurse’s license now.
Because the child is being monitored now? What a total crock.
Enjoy the next Ebola commuter flight.
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