STAY CALM

Ebola Nurse Flew Day Before Symptoms

CDC wants to talk to passengers.

The CDC announced that the second Dallas nurse to contract Ebola flew the day before she felt ill. It’s critical to note that people with Ebola are not contagious until they exhibit symptoms, but the CDC wants to contact all 132 passengers “because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness.” The patient has been identified as 29-year-old registered nurse Amber Joy Vinson, who treated “index patient” Thomas Eric Duncan. On Oct. 8, he died. CDC Director Thomas Frieden said that Vinson should not have been traveling on a commercial airline. On Oct. 10, she flew from Dallas to Cleveland to visit family in Ohio. On Oct. 13, she flew on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland back to Dallas. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m., and the crew has since said she did not appear to be ill, however it is now being reported that she flew with a low-grade fever of 99.5 degrees.. Vinson entered the hospital on the morning of Oct. 14 with a low-grade fever and was placed in isolation. That night she tested positive for the Ebola virus. The CDC announced that one of the two nurses will be flown to Atlanta to be treated at the Emory University hospital.