DALLAS — President Obama urged Americans on Saturday to keep the Texas Ebola cases “in perspective,” saying that in a nation of more than 300 million people, only three cases have been diagnosed.
“This is a serious disease, but we can’t give in to hysteria or fear, because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to release new guidelines for health care workers concerning Ebola, and officials in Ohio on Saturday gave updates on efforts there to monitor people who may have come in contact with Amber Vinson, a Dallas nurse who visited the state.
The president expressed support for Vinson and Nina Pham, two registered nurses infected with the deadly virus while treating a Liberian man at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died at the hospital Oct. 8.
Memorial for Duncan
On Saturday, Duncan was remembered at a memorial service in Salisbury, N.C., as a big-hearted and compassionate man whose virtues may have led to his infection in his native Liberia and death as the first victim of the disease in the United States.
Family and friends gathered at a Southern Baptist church with a primarily Liberian flock near where Duncan’s mother lives.
Duncan’s neighbors in Liberia believe he was infected by helping a pregnant neighbor who later died from Ebola.
The two infected nurses have been transferred to facilities better prepared for such treatment — Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and the National Institutes of Health clinical center in Bethesda, Md.
“Now, even one infection is too many,” Obama said. “At the same time, we have to keep this in perspective. As our public health experts point out, every year thousands of Americans die from the flu.”
Vinson flew on a commercial airline to Ohio last weekend, returning to Dallas on Monday, where she reported a fever and later was diagnosed with an Ebola infection.
On Saturday, Ohio Gov. Jon Kasich said 116 people who may have had contact with Vinson were being monitored, though only one had been placed under quarantine. Twenty-nine of those people were considered “close contacts” of Vinson, according to Mary DiOrio, state epidemiologist, while health officials were also monitoring 87 people who were on Vinson’s flight.
Kasich cautioned that the numbers will change as health officials continue their investigation. None of the patients had shown symptoms of Ebola, he said.
Cruise ship passenger
Another Dallas health care worker, identified as a laboratory supervisor, remains isolated in a cabin of the cruise ship Carnival Magic, which was in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, headed for Galveston, Texas, after having been refused port access in Mexico due to her presence.
She is not ill, but was under watch because she may have been in contact with laboratory specimens from Duncan, according to CDC officials.
The CDC has said it will issue new infection-control guidelines after health care professionals sharply criticized the existing safety protocols.
In his address, Obama made no mention of naming an Ebola “czar,” Ron Klain, former chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden, an appointment that is being met with criticism about Klain’s lack of medical credentials.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
“This is a serious disease, but we can’t give in to hysteria or fear, because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to release new guidelines for health care workers concerning Ebola, and officials in Ohio on Saturday gave updates on efforts there to monitor people who may have come in contact with Amber Vinson, a Dallas nurse who visited the state.
The president expressed support for Vinson and Nina Pham, two registered nurses infected with the deadly virus while treating a Liberian man at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died at the hospital Oct. 8.
Memorial for Duncan
On Saturday, Duncan was remembered at a memorial service in Salisbury, N.C., as a big-hearted and compassionate man whose virtues may have led to his infection in his native Liberia and death as the first victim of the disease in the United States.
Family and friends gathered at a Southern Baptist church with a primarily Liberian flock near where Duncan’s mother lives.
Duncan’s neighbors in Liberia believe he was infected by helping a pregnant neighbor who later died from Ebola.
The two infected nurses have been transferred to facilities better prepared for such treatment — Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and the National Institutes of Health clinical center in Bethesda, Md.
“Now, even one infection is too many,” Obama said. “At the same time, we have to keep this in perspective. As our public health experts point out, every year thousands of Americans die from the flu.”
Vinson flew on a commercial airline to Ohio last weekend, returning to Dallas on Monday, where she reported a fever and later was diagnosed with an Ebola infection.
On Saturday, Ohio Gov. Jon Kasich said 116 people who may have had contact with Vinson were being monitored, though only one had been placed under quarantine. Twenty-nine of those people were considered “close contacts” of Vinson, according to Mary DiOrio, state epidemiologist, while health officials were also monitoring 87 people who were on Vinson’s flight.
Kasich cautioned that the numbers will change as health officials continue their investigation. None of the patients had shown symptoms of Ebola, he said.
Cruise ship passenger
Another Dallas health care worker, identified as a laboratory supervisor, remains isolated in a cabin of the cruise ship Carnival Magic, which was in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, headed for Galveston, Texas, after having been refused port access in Mexico due to her presence.
She is not ill, but was under watch because she may have been in contact with laboratory specimens from Duncan, according to CDC officials.
The CDC has said it will issue new infection-control guidelines after health care professionals sharply criticized the existing safety protocols.
In his address, Obama made no mention of naming an Ebola “czar,” Ron Klain, former chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden, an appointment that is being met with criticism about Klain’s lack of medical credentials.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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