FORT WORTH, Texas — Dallas nurse Amber Vinson was Ebola-free Wednesday, according to family members in Atlanta, where she is being treated for the virus.
Officials at Emory University Hospital, where Vinson is in a biocontainment unit, did not immediately return calls about her condition Wednesday. But Vinson’s family released a statement through a public relations consultant saying the nurse, 29, “is steadily regaining her strength and her spirits are high.”
Vinson contracted the virus, which is killing 70 percent of its victims in West Africa, while she was caring for Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan. He died Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. She was moved last week from Presbyterian to Emory, which has successfully treated other Ebola patients.
The revelation about Vinson’s condition was the latest bit of good news Wednesday regarding Ebola in North Texas, where there have been many potential exposures but just one death. The number of people being monitored for symptoms is steadily decreasing, and if no new cases emerge by the end of the day Nov. 6, the region could be declared Ebola-free on Nov. 7.
Another nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for Duncan, former Fort Worth resident and Texas Christian University graduate Nina Pham, was in good condition at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland, officials said.
In all, the number of people being watched for Ebola symptoms in North Texas peaked Friday and has been steadily dwindling since, local and federal records show.
As recently as Friday, a total of 172 people – 152 health care workers and 20 community contacts – were being monitored in North Texas for symptoms, federal records released Wednesday show. That was the busiest day of monitoring by local, state and federal health officials since Sept. 26, the day Duncan was first seen in the Presbyterian emergency room.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the number of others being watched for a mild fever, headache or other Ebola symptoms dropped to 108 people – 105 health care workers and three people elsewhere in the community. Of those, only one person was listed as a definite exposure, and the others were possible exposures – people who may or may not have had contact with the virus.
The lone definite exposure, whom federal officials didn’t identify by name citing confidentiality laws, is believed to be an employee of Alcon in Fort Worth who had contact with Pham Oct. 11, the day before she was hospitalized with a fever and later tested positive for Ebola. On Wednesday, 11 days later, he still showed no symptoms of the disease, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said.
Also as of Wednesday, a total of 66 people had completed the 21-day period of monitoring for Ebola symptoms and were considered disease-free.
“The number of people at possible risk for contracting Ebola is decreasing each day,” said Lyle Peterson, senior CDC official in Dallas. “Although we are not out of the woods yet, it is very encouraging we have not seen any other cases.”
Dallas city officials also said Wednesday that Pham’s dog, Bentley, has tested negative for the Ebola virus. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel will continue to be held for observation for the requisite 21 days.
A neighbor of Pham’s in Dallas said he can’t wait for her to return home. Steven Josephson, 66, has lived in an apartment near Pham’s for about two years. He still can’t get over the idea that of more than 1 million people in Dallas, one of the three people who were infected with Ebola lives near him.
Even as monitoring begins to wind down in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the CDC announced Wednesday that it would launch a testing program at airports in six states where most West African passengers arrive.
Passengers coming to those airports in Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia will have their temperatures checked and will be asked to provide officials with a thorough list of contacts so they can be traced while in the U.S., CDC Director Tom Frieden said Wednesday during a news conference.
As a result, while the tracking effort appears to be dramatically winding down in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the number of people being monitored in other places is expected to go much higher.
“For any individual traveler, it ends 21 days after the last exposure,” Frieden said. “The program will continue until it’s controlled.”
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