DALLAS – Health officials said they have identified between 12 and 18 people a patient with Ebola may have come in contact with while he was contagious in Texas.
Fortunately, none of those people have shown symptoms of Ebola.
According to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, some school-age children are among the people who had contact with the patient.
Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles said five students at four different schools have come in contact with the Ebola patient but none have shown any symptoms.
The children are being closely watched at home and the schools remain open.
Tuesday, officials with the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that a person with Ebola was diagnosed with the virus on American soil.
First Ebola diagnosis in the US: Is it time to start panicking?
Now, many people are asking questions about how the case was handled in its initial stages.
The man walked into an emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on Sept. 26.
When asked for his travel history, the man told the nurse he had just arrived from Africa.
However, Dr. Mark Lester, executive vice president of Texas Health Resources, says that information was not “fully communicated” to the medical team.
He underwent basic blood tests and was sent home with antibiotics.
Two days later, he went back to the hospital and officials determined he probably had Ebola.
Authorities say people with Ebola are contagious but only through contact with infected bodily fluids when they are showing symptoms of the virus.
Those symptoms include high fever, severe headache, diarrhea and vomiting, among others.
