Airline seeks those who flew with Ebola patient
DALLAS - Chicago-based United Airlines said Thursday it is notifying passengers who were on flights with a man later diagnosed with Ebola and telling them how to contact federal health officials.
United said it is also telling passengers that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe the man could not have spread the disease during the flights because he was not showing symptoms and was not yet contagious.
On Sept. 19, Thomas Eric Duncan flew from Liberia in the heart of western Africa's Ebola outbreak zone to Belgium on a Brussels Airlines flight, according to Belgian officials.
United said it believes that Duncan flew the next day on United Flight 951 from Brussels to Dulles International Airport near Washington and connected to Flight 822 from Dulles to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
United officials declined to say how many passengers were on the flights. The Brussels-to-Dulles flight was on a Boeing 777 that has 266 seats, and the flight to Dallas used an Airbus A320 with 138 seats.
In a statement, the airline said Thursday that the two planes underwent their routine overnight "thorough cleaning" after the flights, "including cleaning of lavatories and galleys with heavy-duty all-purpose cleaners and wiping tray tables and armrests with disinfectant." It added that "we continue to clean and route the planes throughout our network as usual."
Texas health officials have ordered four members of a family that Duncan was staying with in Dallas to remain in their home, and they've posted law enforcement outside to be sure.
Federal and Texas health officials are reaching out to about 100 people to determine if they have had contact with the Ebola patient hospitalized in Dallas.
But Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said Thursday they've only identified a handful of individuals so far who may really have been exposed and therefore will be monitored.
Texas state health commissioner David Lakey said the unusual quarantine step with the four people who stayed with the Ebola patient was so health officials could do the necessary monitoring, including checking them for fevers over the next 21 days.
Texas officials are delivering groceries to the home where the patient stayed and are preparing to have it professionally cleaned.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Duncan's belongings and clothes and household trash, possibly including his sheets, are bagged inside the house so the people who live there cannot come into contact with them until they are removed.
Liberia plans to prosecute Dunan, alleging he lied on an airport questionnaire about not having any contact with an infected person, authorities said Thursday.
Duncan filled out a series of questions about his health and activities before leaving on his journey to Dallas. On a Sept. 19 form obtained by The Associated Press, he answered no to all of them.
Among other questions, the form asked whether Duncan had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of anyone who had died in an area affected by Ebola.
"We expect people to do the honorable thing," said Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the board of directors of the Liberia Airport Authority in Monrovia. The agency took the case to the Ministry of Justice, which will formally prosecute it.
Neighbors in the Liberian capital believe Duncan become infected when he helped bundle a sick pregnant neighbor into a taxi a few weeks ago and set off with her to find treatment.
Meanwhile an American cameraman helping to cover the Ebola outbreak in Liberia for NBC News has tested positive for the virus and will be flown back to the United States for treatment.
NBC News President Deborah Turness said Thursday the rest of the NBC News crew including medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman will be flown back to the U.S. and placed in quarantine for 21 days "in an abundance of caution."
The cameraman has been working in Liberia for three years and covering the Ebola epidemic. He began shooting for the network Tuesday.