Duncan kin, some at hospital near end of Ebola isolation
A 21-day quarantine for extended family of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States was due to end within hours, his fiancee and health officials said Sunday.
Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who died of the viral disease whose latest epidemic emerged in West Africa, was sent home when he first checked in at hospital and was only admitted when he returned two days later while vomiting.
"Tomorrow, my family and I will complete the 21-day quarantine period we were required to undergo because of the Ebola virus in Dallas," his fiancee Helen Troh wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.
"We are so happy this is coming to an end, and we are so grateful that none of us has shown any sign of illness."
But she also noted that "our happiness is mixed with sadness" after the death of Duncan, who was also the father of their son.
"We continue to mourn his loss and grieve the circumstances that led to his death, just at the time we thought we were facing a happy future together," Troh added.
Earlier, the Texas hospital that cared for Duncan apologized over its handling of the case.
Two nurses for Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas subsequently contracted the disease and are now being treated at specialist facilities.
"As an institution, we made mistakes in handling this very difficult challenge," the hospital said in a "letter to our community" that was published in Sunday's Dallas Morning News.
The apology came as a lab worker from the hospital who had been on a cruise returned to Texas.
Because of fears she may have had contact with Duncan's fluids, she had voluntarily remained in isolation in her cabin.
Carnival Cruise Lines said that a blood test confirmed she was not infected, and she got off the boat after it returned to Galveston. The liner had been refused entry to Belize and Mexico over fears of the disease.
Duncan had flown from Liberia to Texas to visit family, arriving in Dallas on September 20. He began feeling sick four days later, but was not hospitalized until September 28.
He was sent home after an initial visit to the emergency room, even after he reported Ebola-like symptoms and said he had recently traveled from Liberia, the hardest-hit nation in the current outbreak.
The period for incubation for Ebola is 21 days.
Anthony Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC television's "This Week" that health care workers' exposed skin cost them their infections in Dallas. He said protocol must be "no skin showing" when Ebola patients are treated.
Fauci also said the Texas health workers who first treated Duncan would end their quarantine later in the day.
"The ones now today that are going to be 'off the hook' are the ones that saw him initially in the emergency room," Fauci told NBC's "Meet the Press."
© 2014 AFP
