Kids Go Back To Class After Ebola Quarantine
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CARROLLTON (CBSDFW.COM) - Three students across North Texas are heading back to class on Monday after clearing their recommended 21-day monitoring period for possible contact with Ebola. One of the children was on the same airplane as nurse Amber Vinson in October.
Vinson cared for original Ebola patient Thomas Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas back in September. She was in Ohio when she started feeling sick. Following advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she boarded a Frontier Airlines flight back to Texas with a low-grade fever. A day later, Vinson tested positive for the Ebola virus.
The nurse was transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and has since been declared Ebola-free. Vinson was released from medical care last week.
Complete Coverage Of Ebola In North Texas
One child from the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District was on an airplane with Vinson and urged to remain under quarantine for three weeks, watching for possible Ebola symptoms. That recommended watch period finally ended on Saturday.
The student attends McCoy Elementary School in Carrollton, and was on the flight with Vinson from North Texas to Ohio. When the school district confirmed that the CDC watch list included a student from the campus, workers were brought in to scrub the building with a bleach solution just to be safe. The district also alerted parents via phone calls, emails, meetings and online notices.
"I think they did the right thing by keeping the child home and away from the other students," said parent Dana Burke, "and doing the right thing by quarantining them for that time, for sure, which is what I would've done."
Meanwhile, two students in the Royse City Independent School District are also returning to classes at Ruth Cherry Intermediate School and Davis Elementary School on Monday. Their mother is a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who had treated an Ebola patient. The family stayed under quarantine for 21 days.
None of the three students have shown any symptoms of Ebola.
There are only four more days until all of Dallas County can finally be declared Ebola-free. North Texas has seen three confirmed cases of the virus, but there were more than 170 people either in direct contact with one of those patients or in possible contact with them. Friday is the day when the last few people are expected to be cleared.
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