NEW YORK, October 3 (RIA Novosti) - 50 people are currently at risk from exposure to the first Ebola case on the US territory and are being monitored, the government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday.
"These people may receive twice daily temperature checks; people are asked about symptoms and offered counselling and education," Dr. Beth Bell, Director of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases said.
She added that the monitoring is carried out for 21 days – the longest incubation period for Ebola.
"Even a single case of Ebola in the United States seems threatening, but the simple truth is that we do know how to stop Ebola's spread between people. Hospitals who follow CDC's infection control recommendations can safely manage a patient with Ebola here in the United States," Dr. Bell told reporters.
CDC sent 10 experts to Texas following the discovery of the first confirmed case of Ebola in the United States. Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed with the virus in Dallas on September 30 after travelling to the US on September 24.
Duncan is reportedly in a serious condition. 10 of the total of 50 people subject to monitoring have been placed in a high-risk category.
More than 3,300 people have died in the worst Ebola outbreak in history. It began in southern Guinea in February and spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The WHO says it could infect some 20,000 people before it is brought under control.
