By Jon Herskovitz
DALLAS (Reuters) - U.S. health officials on Friday said Dallas authorities planned to properly dispose of items in the apartment where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the country had stayed and where four people close to him are quarantined.
Sheets and other items used by the man have been sealed in plastic bags, but questions have been raised about the delay in sanitizing the apartment since the patient's diagnosis was confirmed Sunday.
"This is something we expect to get resolved today," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when asked about the delays in cordoning off and cleaning the site.
In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, Frieden said bleach was being used to clean the residence in the northeastern part of Dallas in coordination with the CDC.
U.S. health officials say they are confident that they can prevent the spread of Ebola in the United States after the first case was diagnosed there this week. The case has put authorities and the public on alert over concerns that the virus could spread from Liberia and two other impoverished West African countries, Guinea and Sierra Leone, where the virus has killed at least 3,338 people.
"It is contained," Zachary Thomas, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said on CNN.
On Wednesday, a government official said the United States was days away from settling the critical question of how hospitals should handle and dispose of medical waste from Ebola patients. Most U.S. hospitals are not equipped with incinerators or large sterilizers called autoclaves that could accommodate the large amounts of soiled linens, contaminated syringes and virus-spattered protective gear generated from the care of an Ebola patient, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America's Public Health Committee.
In Dallas, four people close to the Ebola patient, Liberian citizen Thomas Eric Duncan, have been quarantined in the apartment where he stayed as health officials widened their search for others who had contact with him.
Up to 100 people had direct or indirect contact with Duncan, and out of a handful being monitored, none has shown any symptoms so far, health officials said. Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.
NBC News said on Thursday that one of its freelance cameramen, Ashoka Mukpo, 33, had contracted Ebola, the fifth American to be diagnosed. NBC said he had quarantined himself after feeling ill and discovering he had a fever.
"Obviously he?s scared and worried," his father, Dr. Mitchell Levy, told NBC on Friday. "He?s been filming what?s happening in Liberia for two weeks and seeing the death and tragedy, and now it?s really hit home for him.?
Mukpo's mother, Diane Mukpo, said her son would remain in Monrovia until he is evacuated to the United States on Sunday.
NBC has said the entire crew would return to the United States on a private plane and remain under quarantine for 21 days, the maximum incubation period for Ebola.
APARTMENT GUARDED
At the apartment where Duncan was staying, security guards were keeping people about 100 yards (90 meters) away, with orange cones blocking the entrance and exit. Police are also there to keep those quarantined from leaving, and those inside are monitored with fever checks twice a day, officials said.
The four include a woman who had a child with Duncan, one of her children, age 13, and two visiting nephews in their 20s, she told CNN on Thursday.
CNN reported that a plan to sanitize the home was delayed late Thursday when authorities turned away a cleaning crew. Brad Smith of the Cleaning Guys said his company did not have the proper permits to transport hazardous waste on Texas highways, according to CNN.
"The permit is being processed through DOT (Department of Transportation) because it is a special permit," Smith told CNN.
Three Americans contracted Ebola in West Africa, were flown to the United States for treatment and later released: Dr. Kent Brantly, Nancy Writebol and Dr. Rick Sacra. A fourth American who contracted Ebola in West Africa is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The person has not been identified by officials.
Duncan remains in serious condition at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, a spokeswoman there said on Thursday.
He initially sought treatment at the hospital on Sept. 25 but was sent back to the apartment with antibiotics, despite telling a nurse he had just been in Liberia. On Sept. 28, Duncan needed an ambulance to return to the same hospital after vomiting on the ground outside the apartment complex.
According to CNN, the woman who had a child with Duncan said she told hospital staff twice that he had come from Liberia.
Hospital officials said Duncan was mistakenly sent home at first because of a software problem that has since been fixed, rather than human error. In a statement, they said doctors and nurses had followed their protocols but that their computerized records on the patient did not mesh. A nurse's record of the case showed Duncan had come from Liberia, but doctors who examined him may not have had that information in their records.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Bill Trott in Washington, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Lisa Maria Garza and Marice Richter in Dallas and Felix Bate in West Africa; Writing by Susan Heavey and Jim Loney; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Grant McCool)
