10 People in Dallas in Grave Danger of Contracting Ebola

ATLANTA – Ten people in Dallas, who have been in contact with the first patient diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, are in grave danger of contracting the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

In a press teleconference together with Dallas health authorities, the CDC’s Dr. Beth Bell said that, despite the serious risk, none of those people have shown symptoms of the illness, which can be fever, muscle pain, vomiting or bleeding.

She said that besides the 100 people originally indicated as being at risk for their contact with the patient Thomas Eric Duncan after his return from Liberia, authorities have determined that only 50 of them will remain under observation and evaluation over the next 21 days.

Both federal and local authorities have been criticized for their handling of the situation, and for keeping the patient’s family in the same conditions they were living in before he was admitted to hospital last Sunday.

“I am concerned for this family. I want to see this family treated the way I would want to see my own family treated,” Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, director of emergency management for Dallas County, said during the teleconference.

As of Friday morning, the family’s apartment had not yet been disinfected due to a lack of the necessary permits to move contaminated material, the judge said, adding that a prompt response to the situation would be made.

Meanwhile, in what could be another possible case of the disease, the prison in Cobb County, Georgia, confirmed Friday that an inmate, who had traveled recently to West Africa and who has flu-like symptoms, has been tested for the Ebola virus.

Howard University Hospital in Washington also confirmed Friday that a patient who was recently in Nigeria and who had symptoms “that could be associated with Ebola” was admitted.

Bell said the U.S. government is making every effort to speed up development of an anti-Ebola vaccine, but stressed the need to guarantee the safety of the immunization in order to fight this infirmity, which up to now has infected 7,178 people and has left 3,338 dead in West Africa, according to the latest World Health Organization figure