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 "It's official," the Texas Department of State Health Services said
in a tweet announcing the final monitoring check Friday evening of
the last of the 177 people who had been considered at risk of
catching the virus.
"No symptoms. We are happy to close this Ebola chapter with Dallas
tonight," the department said.
The announcement came four hours after the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said that, as of Friday, 176 of the 177
people in Texas it had been checking for possible Ebola exposure had
been cleared. They had been monitored for symptoms of Ebola for 21
days, the disease's maximum incubation period. Ebola causes fever,
vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding.
The Texas city's Ebola worries began on Sept. 30 when a visiting
Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, was taken by ambulance to Texas
Health Presbyterian Hospital, where he was diagnosed with the
disease.
The first case on U.S. soil of the virus, in the middle of an Ebola
epidemic that has killed more than 4,950 people in three poor West
African countries, prompted questions about whether the U.S.
government was doing enough to prevent the disease from entering the
country.
"The last five weeks have been a trying time for the city and
residents of Dallas and especially the people of Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital Dallas," Bush told hospital staff.
The former president, who lives a few miles from the hospital,
hugged now-Ebola-free nurse Amber Vinson, who contracted the virus
after treating Duncan. He also posed for "selfies" with staff at the
medical facility where he himself has underwent care.
No one else in Texas has contracted Ebola since nurses Nina Pham and
Vinson became infected while caring for Duncan, who became ill while
visiting relatives in Dallas. He died on Oct. 8. Both nurses
eventually made a full recovery.
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"Dallas is officially #Ebola free today!" Pham tweeted on Friday.
"So grateful to all the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare
workers that were involved in my care."
Clay Jenkins, the top political official in Dallas County who was at
the forefront of the region's public health response, said the end
of Ebola was like Thanksgiving coming early.
President Barack Obama called state and local officials, including
Jenkins, on Friday to express his gratitude.
Obama also extended his appreciation "to the people of Dallas, whose
strength and resilience helped reassure the nation," the White House
said.
The U.S. Ebola response became a hot-button issue in the midterm
elections that ended Tuesday, even though it killed only Duncan, one
of just four infected nationwide.
Ebola, which has ravaged Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, can only
be caught via bodily fluids from an infected person. It is not
airborne.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by
Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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