Texas health worker isolated on cruise ship, deemed low risk for Ebola

(Reuters) - A Texas health worker who may have had contact with specimens from the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States has been isolated on a cruise ship, but is showing no symptoms of the disease, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker, who did not have direct contact with now-deceased Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan but could have processed his bodily fluids, left Sunday on a cruise from Galveston, Texas, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

The news added to growing concerns about the possible spread of Ebola in the United States after two nurses who cared for Duncan contracted the deadly virus, which has killed nearly 4,500 people, mostly in West Africa.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has faced sharp criticism from some lawmakers over efforts to contain the disease at home. Obama has said he is considering appointing an Ebola "tsar" to coordinate the battle but remained opposed to a ban on travel from West Africa. [ID:nL2N0SC0CH]

The health worker aboard the cruise ship has been self-monitoring since Oct. 6 and has not developed a fever or other symptoms of Ebola, the State Department said.

Carnival Cruise Lines said Friday it had been notified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that a passenger on the Carnival Magic was a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian. It said she was deemed to be "very low risk."

The ship can carry 3,690 passengers and 1,367 crew, according to the company's website.

The State Department said the worker may have processed samples from Duncan 19 days ago. The maximum incubation window for the disease is 21 days, according to the CDC.

The worker and a companion voluntarily isolated themselves in their cabin.

"We are working with the cruise line to safely bring them back to the United States out of an abundance of caution," Psaki said in the statement.

The government of Belize said in a statement it had denied a request by U.S. officials to use a Belizean airport to transport a cruise ship passenger who was considered very low risk for Ebola.

"The passenger never set foot in Belize," the statement said. "When even the smallest doubt remains, we will ensure the health and safety of the Belizean people."

TRAVEL BAN?

U.S. lawmakers held a congressional hearing about the administration's handling of the Ebola outbreak in the United States and some have called for a tsar and a ban on travel from West Africa. [ID:nL2N0SB3KX]

"It may be appropriate for me to appoint an additional person" to oversee efforts to contain Ebola, Obama told reporters, adding that experts have said "a flat-out travel ban is not the way to go" because current screening measures at airports are working.

He authorized calling up military reservists for the U.S. fight against Ebola in West Africa on Thursday. [ID:nL2N0SB37H]

Obama said he had no philosophical objection to a travel ban but that some travelers might attempt to enter the United States by avoiding screening measures, which could lead to more Ebola cases, not fewer.

U.S. Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told reporters separately that the government was assessing whether to issue a travel ban "on a day-to-day basis."

The CDC has said it was expanding its search for people who may have been exposed to Amber Vinson - one of the nurses who treated the Ebola patient in Texas - to include passengers on her flight to Cleveland, in addition to those on her Monday return trip to Texas.

Vinson traveled to Ohio over the weekend on a Frontier Airlines flight while running a slight fever.

Dr. Christopher Braden, a CDC spokesman, said Vinson may have been ill as early as Friday, when she boarded the flight from Dallas to Cleveland. [ID:nL2N0SB3D7]

Lawrence Vinson, Amber Vinson's uncle, told CNN on Friday that no travel restrictions were imposed on the nurses who treated Duncan and that his niece did not believe she was putting anyone in danger by boarding the plane to Ohio.

    "They were given gear that was supposed to provide isolation and they were given protocols to follow that they believed would protect them," Lawrence Vinson said.

    He said his niece did not contact the CDC directly, but health workers in Texas had checked in with her in Ohio and made multiple calls to the CDC to get the go-ahead for her flight back to Dallas on Monday.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC director, has said it is unlikely passengers who flew with Vinson were infected because the nurse had not vomited or bled on the flight, but he said she should not have boarded the plane.

Concerns about Ebola exposure prompted several schools in Ohio and Texas to close because people with ties to the schools may have shared the flight with Vinson.

An air ambulance transported Vinson to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital on Wednesday for treatment. The first nurse to contract Ebola, Nina Pham, 26, was flown to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, to be treated in an isolation unit.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Will Dunham, Mohammad Zargham, Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and David Alexander in Washington, Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans and Curtis Skinner in an Francisco; Writing by Jim Loney; Editing by Bernadette Baum)