MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) – The Dallas County in the US state of Texas is voting on whether or not to declare a local state of emergency amid multiplying Ebola cases, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
"[The Dallas County] has the potential to suffer widespread or severe damage, injury, loss or threat of life resulting from the Ebola virus," a proposed draft of the declaration that Dallas County Commissioners are voting on says, as quoted by Bloomberg.
According to the declaration, approval of the proposed order would put the country's emergency management system in motion.
Earlier this week, two US healthcare workers, 26-year-old Nina Pham and 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson, contracted Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to test positive for the disease in the United States. Duncan, who was a Liberian national, was treated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas before he died on October 8.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 3 people who came into contact with the second Texas healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola are at risk of having caught the virus.
On Wednesday, CDC said it was preparing for more cases of Ebola in the coming days.
The current Ebola epidemic started in southern Guinea in February and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal, with several Ebola cases having been reported outside of West Africa.
The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of those infected. There is no officially approved medication for the disease, but several countries, including Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom, are working on developing Ebola vaccines.
