Durham, North Carolina – The federal officials do not need to track the commercial bus passengers that the suspected Ebola patient used to travel to Durham last Saturday.
Since the first test of the suspected patient came back negative, North Carolina epidemiologist Dr. Megan Davies said that there’s no need for the federal officials to try to track those passengers of the commercial bus and have them checked in urgent care clinics and hospitals.
The three Person Country home people where the suspected patient’s relatives brought the man after arriving in Durham are currently being closely monitored—checked twice a day, one over the phone and the other in person. The head officials of the county have ordered the three people to stay inside the urgent care near me and not be around many people as much as possible. This is still according to Dr. Megan Davies’ statement during a telephone news conference that happened on Monday.
A number of checks will be done on the patient again on Wednesday and the order will end if he tests negative, Davies said.
The suspected Ebola patient was not identified to protect him. He told officials that while he was in Africa, he didn’t have any contact to the Ebola-ravaged patients there and have not even visited any urgent care clinic or facility there.
He went back to the country on Saturday, into Newark, New Jersey from Liberia which alerted the federal officials given that where he came from is one of those West African nations that have been ravaged by the epidemic. From New Jersey, he rode a commercial bus to North Carolina and was taken to the Person County home according to the state Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Aldona Wos.
In the home in Person County, the unnamed man was given a thermometer by border control agents and was found that his temperature was 101.9 degrees which was well above normal. They called the state Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which also had the health officials of North Carolina alerted.
The Person health officials took the man to Duke Hospital for urgent care and arrived there on Sunday, around 9:30pm. A blood sample was taken from the patient and the technicians worked on the test into the night then finished early morning. This test of the suspected Ebola patient came negative indicating that the man doesn’t pose any threat to the passengers of the commercial bus that he used to travel from Newark to Durham.
If the next test that will be done on Wednesday would come back negative, the suspected Ebola patient will be then allowed to leave the hospital and will no longer be considered as a threat.
