H2 Note: There are 5,057 from all over the world on this same ship ...

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Texas hospital worker quarantined on cruise ship in Caribbean

By Lindsey Bever and Fred Barbash October 17 at 2:32 AM
Updated and corrected

A Texas health-care worker who “may have” handled lab specimens from Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan has been isolated on board a Carnival cruise ship in the Caribbean. The worker has shown no symptoms of the disease, according to Carnival, which said it is in close contact with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A Carnival spokeswoman said the guest, who was not named, will remain on board in voluntary isolation until the ship returns to its home port of Galveston on Sunday.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital employee and a partner boarded the ship Oct. 12 in Galveston, Tex., before the CDC updated the requirement for active monitoring, the State Department said in a statement. Although the worker is healthy, the U.S. government is working with the cruise line to get the ship back to America “out of an abundance of caution.”

The employee, who has not been named, did not come into direct contact with Duncan, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. However, he or she may have been exposed to his clinical specimens, the State Department said.

“It has been 19 days since the passenger may have processed” Duncan’s fluid samples, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement early Friday morning. “The cruise line has actively supported CDC’s efforts to speak with the individual, whom the cruise ship’s medical doctor has monitored and confirmed was in good health. Following this examination, the hospital employee and traveling partner have voluntarily remained isolated in a cabin.”

During a House subcommittee hearing on Thursday, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden outlined how his agency is responding to the threat of Ebola, emphasizing the need to stop the virus "at the source." Here are key moments from that hearing. (Sarah Parnass and Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)

Belizean news reports stated that the cruise ship Carnival Magic was offshore after the government of Belize learned that a U.S. hospital worker on board may have been exposed to Ebola and that the Belize Coast Guard was deployed to prevent anyone from leaving the ship. The government of Belize assured its citizens that the health-care professional “never set foot in Belize.”

A Carnival spokeswoman, however, said the ship made its scheduled visit to Belize Thursday. “Passengers were free to disembark there for the day other than the guest and her traveling companion who are in voluntary isolation.”

In its own statement Thursday, the the Belize government said it “was contacted today by officers of the U.S. Government and made aware of a cruise ship passenger considered of very low risk for Ebola…. Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, the Government of Belize decided not to facilitate a U.S. request for assistance in evacuating the passenger through the Phillip Goldson International Airport.”

Duncan died at the Dallas hospital Oct. 8. It’s not certain what kind of lab specimen the hospital worker may have handled. Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids such as vomit, urine, saliva, sweat, feces, breast milk and semen. And it’s not clear what, if any, protective gear he or she was wearing at the time of contact.

In this Oct. 8, 2014 file photo, a sign points to the entrance to the emergency room at Texas Health

Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where U.S. Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan died. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
The announcement comes amid growing concerns after two nurses who cared for Duncan tested positive for Ebola. Nina Pham was diagnosed Oct. 11, just three days after Duncan died from the disease. She was flown

Thursday night to the National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md., after delivering an upbeat but tearful greeting via video.

Amber Vinson was diagnosed with Ebola earlier this week — a day after she flew with a fever on a Frontier Airlines flight from Cleveland back to Dallas. Since then, the CDC has contacted the 132 passengers who flew with her. However, officials said Thursday she may have shown symptoms as many as four days before they initially indicated. Now the CDC is busy tracking all passengers who were on her first flight to Ohio last week.

Pham and Vinson were among nearly 100 workers who cared for Duncan in the Dallas hospital. Psaki said that as part of the CDC’s contract trace investigation, it was discovered that another employee of the Dallas hospital had left the country on a cruise ship.

At the time the worker boarded the ship, CDC protocol called for “self-monitoring,” including daily temperature checks. Psaki said the person has been following those instructions since Oct. 6.

“Today, every person at Texas Health Dallas who has had contact with a known Ebola patient is under active monitoring for 21 days after their last contact with the patient,” Daniel Varga, the chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources, which oversees Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, said in a statement.

Correction: An earlier version of this story quoted reports from Belize that the ship had been denied entry to the port. Carnival said that the vessel has already made its stop in Belize and all passengers except the worker and spouse were free to disembark.

A photo originally accompanying this story was mislabeled. The ship in the background, not the foreground, was the Carnival Magic.

At a hearing on Thursday, Daniel Vargas, chief clinical officer of Texas Health Resources, detailed for members of Congress the timeline of Thomas Eric Duncan's interactions with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. (AP)

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