A Dallas health care worker who handled a lab specimen from an Ebola-infected man from Liberia who died of the disease is on a Caribbean cruise ship, where she has self-quarantined and is being monitored for any signs of infection, Obama administration officials say
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State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Friday that the woman has shown no signs of the disease and has been asymptomatic for 19 days.
The announcement came as the Obama administration faced renewed criticism over whether the country is well enough prepared for dealing with a virus that has ravaged parts of Africa, killing about 4,500 people.
NYC: Death on a plane
The government is working to return the woman and her husband to the U.S. before the ship completes its cruise, the White House said.
Republican Congressman Peter King questions U.S. Ebola preparedness. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)
Psaki says that when the woman left the U.S. on the cruise ship health officials were requiring only self-monitoring.
Also Friday, questions were raised about the death of an airline passenger on a flight from Nigeria to New York City. Rep. Peter King of New York wrote to the Department of Homeland Security saying the man, 63, died after vomiting in his seat, the New York Post reported.
The Republican congressman said the body was released at JFK airport after a "cursory" examination to ensure the man wasn't carrying Ebola. King wanted to what protocols were being set up for such situations.
Washington: Czar needed
President Barack Obama is conceding that it may make sense to have a single person lead the administration's effort. But he says imposing a travel ban from disease-ravaged West Africa, as Republicans have demanded, would be counterproductive.
In Dallas, the epicentre of Ebola in the U.S., officials took a tougher approach toward monitoring dozens of health care workers who were exposed to the virus while treating an infected patient who later died. The health care workers were asked to sign legally binding documents agreeing not to go to public places or use public transportation.
Those who break the agreement could face undisclosed sanctions.
The move came after two nurses who had treated Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital were diagnosed with Ebola and the disclosure that one of them had flown roundtrip between the Dallas area and Cleveland before her diagnosis.
Texas: Nurse in tears
Self-monitoring was extended Thursday to people who took the same outbound flight as nurse Amber Vinson; it had been imposed earlier for passengers on the return trip. Another group being contacted: shoppers at the Akron bridal shop Vinson visited that Saturday.
Nurse Nina Pham, 26, became the first person to contract Ebola within the United States. (Courtesy of tcu360.com/ Associated Press)
Both nurses have been transferred from the Texas hospital where they treated Duncan and became infected. Nina Pham was transferred on Thursday to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and Vinson on Wednesday to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The two facilities are among four in the United States that have specialized isolation units.
A video released by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital showed Pham in her hospital isolation ward before her transfer, speaking to her physician, Dr. Gary Weinstein. At one point Pham begins crying, and Weinstein, dressed in full personal protection gear hands her a tissue. "I love you guys," she says. "We love you, Nina," responds Weinstein.
The two nurses have been the only cases of transmission in the U.S. Duncan was exposed to the virus in Liberia and was diagnosed after traveling to Texas.
Europe: 'Twin plagues'
The magnitude of the Ebola outbreak continues to grow in Africa; the World Health Organization forecast the death toll would surpass 4,500 by the end of the week.
In Geneva, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, paired the Ebola outbreak and ISIS as "twin plagues" that will cost the world many billions of dollars to overcome, and the United Nations made an urgent appeal for more money to fight the disease.
Cancelling a campaign fundraising trip for the second straight day, Obama met into the evening with top aides and health officials. The White House said Obama also placed calls to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven to discuss the need for an international response to the outbreak in West Africa.
Obama authorized a call-up of reserve and National Guard troops in case they are needed. His executive order would allow more forces than the up-to-4,000 already planned to be sent to West Africa, and allow for longer periods of time. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Obama said several people leading the government's Ebola response also have other priorities.
Less effective
"It may make sense for us to have one person … so that after this initial surge of activity we can have a more regular process just to make sure we are crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's," he said.
He said he had no "philosophical objection" to imposing a travel ban on West Africa if it would keep Americans safe but had been told by health and security experts that it would be less effective than measures already in place.
Earlier in the day, during a contentious congressional hearing, Republican after Republican demanded that Obama impose a travel ban.
About 100 to 150 people fly into the U.S. each day from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three nations hit hardest by Ebola.
Spain: 2 test negative
Two of four people suspected of having Ebola and admitted to hospitals in Spain have tested negative in a first round of tests, officials said Friday.
The government's Ebola monitoring committee said on its official Twitter account that the two were a person who arrived on an Air France jet that was isolated at Madrid's airport Thursday and a person who traveled in the same ambulance used to hospitalize infected Spanish nursing assistant Teresa Romero on Oct. 6. Both had developed fevers. They will be tested a second time within 72 hours.
Two others, a missionary who came down with a fever after returning from Liberia and a Red Cross health worker who recently worked with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, were also to be tested.
France names Ebola czar
Health Ministry spokesman Fernando Simon said Romero's infection was almost under control and there was increasingly less reason to be worried.
Meanwhile, France's government announced Friday it is strengthening its anti-Ebola efforts even though no cases have been detected in the country.
The prime minister appointed a prominent doctor, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, as Ebola "czar" to co-ordinate France's international and national responses to the crisis.
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