A Dallas health care worker who handled a lab specimen from a Liberian man who died from Ebola is self-quarantined on a Caribbean cruise ship and is being monitored for infection, the White House confirmed on Friday.
The woman, an employee of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, had shown no signs of the disease and has been asymptomatic for 19 days, an Obama administration spokesman said.
The government is working to return the woman and her husband to the U.S. before the ship, the Carnival Magic, completes its cruise. The State Department was working to secure their transportation home.
An administration official said the cruise ship had stopped in Belize but officials there would not allow the passenger to leave the vessel.
A government official said that when the woman left the U.S. on the cruise ship from Galveston, Texas, on October 12, health officials [amazon asin=0990463109&template=*lrc ad (right)]were requiring only self-monitoring.
One official said it’s believed the woman poses no risk but health-care authorities want to get her off the cruise ship and back to the U.S. out of an abundance of caution.
There have been no restrictions placed on other passengers aboard the ship.
Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement that the woman, a lab supervisor, remained in isolation ‘and is not deemed to be a risk to any guests or crew’.
‘We are in close contact with the CDC and at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board,’ the statement said.
The worker is is being monitored for any signs of infection by the ship’s doctor.
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