AP Photo/LM Otero (Director of Dallas County Health and Human Services Zachary Thompson talks on a cell phone in the parking lot of The Village Bend East apartments where a second healthcare worker who has tested positive for Ebola lives, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014, in Dallas. It's not clear how the second worker contracted the virus.)
The health workers who treated Dallas’ first Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan should not have been allowed to move around, county health director Zachary Thompson said Wednesday.
Thompson said that decision isn’t up to him — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are handling the monitoring of those workers. He said he hasn’t heard any discussion about quarantine. But if it was up to the county health department, the patients “wouldn’t have been able to move around,” Thompson said.
Two of those 77 workers have now been diagnosed with Ebola. The second, 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson, tested positive for the illness Wednesday.
Prior to that diagnosis, she had traveled to Cleveland. On the way back to Texas, Vinson had a low grade fever. Now, the CDC is trying to track down the people who were on her flight.
The monitoring of the healthcare workers is different than the way Duncan’s contacts were watched. Duncan’s family, including fiance Louise Troh, was ordered to stay inside its apartment. When some members left, sheriff’s deputies read them a court order that told them to stay put.
Eventually, County Judge Clay Jenkins drove the family to a secret location, where they are waiting to make sure they didn’t contract the virus.
A similar protocol should have been followed to keep track of the health workers, Thompson said.
“Everyone should have been treated just like Louise,” he said in a phone interview.
In a press conference, CDC Director Tom Frieden addressed the questions about Vinson’s travel, but didn’t say whether any quarantine would be ordered.
He said Vinson left for Ohio before it was known that the first health care worker was infected. Vinson was monitoring herself for symptoms at that time.
“She should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” Frieden said. “The CDC guidance in this setting outlines the need for what is called ‘controlled movement.’ That can include a charter plane. That can include a car. But it does not include public transport.”