Update on Possible New Ebola Patient: “Low Risk,” Did Not Have Contact With Duncan, Does Not Have Fever
The test results are not in yet for the sheriff’s deputy under observation at Texas Health Resources in Dallas, but Matt Goodman at Healthcare Daily has one more piece of information we hadn’t seen before: the deputy does not have one of the main symptoms of Ebola, a fever.
On Wednesday afternoon, a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy who went into the Vickery Meadow apartment where Duncan was staying drove to an urgent care clinic in Frisco after his stomach began hurting. He was then taken by ambulance to Texas Health Presbyterian out of an abundance of caution, said Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland.
“He neither had definite contact with Ebola nor definite symptoms of Ebola,” said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden during an afternoon news conference.
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Monitoring involves twice-daily temperature checks, as a fever is often the first sign of Ebola. The Texas Department of Health and Human Services said he was never among those being monitored for contact with Duncan:
“This individual was not one of the contacts of the patient and has no fever. We understand that anyone near the Dallas response will be very concerned about any health issues they experience, and we want them to report those issues so we can check them out quickly. We’re closely tracking those whose contact put them at risk of potential infection, and none of those people have reported any symptoms of Ebola. The disease is spread only through direct contact with blood, secretions or other bodily fluids or exposure to contaminated objects, such as needles.”