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Panic: Dallas Parents Fearing Ebola Pull Children from School


downloadParents on Wednesday were removing their children from a Dallas school where a student may have had contact with the Ebola patient diagnosed Tuesday.

A letter to parents of children at L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary School,6929 Town North Drive, says in part:

“This morning, we were made aware that one of our students may have had contact with an individual who was recently diagnosed with the Ebola virus. This student is currently not showing any symptoms and is under close observation by the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department. As a precautionary measure, the student has been advised to stay home from school. Since this student is not presenting any symptoms, there is nothing to suggest that the disease was spread to others, including students and staff.”

At a news conference at noon Wednesday, Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles said students attending four different Dallas Independent School District schools possibly have been exposed to the Ebola virus.

He said the district was informed the five students were in contact with the Ebola patient over the weekend. They have been in school since, but are now at home and likely will be kept there for 21 days.

Dallas County is working with the Centers for Disease Control to have “boots on the ground” to monitor those who might have been exposed, officials said.

WFAA’s Sebastian Robertson is reporting that concerned parents are picking up their children from the school where one of the students may have attended.

The Ebola patient was visiting a neighborhood where 33 languages are spoken, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said.

According to The Associated Press, the sister of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States says he told relatives he notified officials the first time he went to the hospital that he was visiting from Liberia.

Mai Wureh says her brother, Thomas Eric Duncan, went to a Dallas emergency room on Friday and they sent him home with antibiotics. She says he said hospital officials asked for his Social Security number and he said that he didn’t have one because he was visiting from Liberia.

Duncan arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20 to be with relatives in Dallas. He began to develop symptoms last Wednesday and sought care two days later. He was released and returned to the hospital and was admitted Sunday.

Questions arose over why the patient was released in the first place.

“He was not exhibiting symptoms consistent with keeping him. If the person is not exhibiting the symptoms there would be no reason to keep them,” Texas Health Resources spokesman Wendell Watson said. “That’s a judgment call one of the carriers would have to make. We are following up as well as the CDC and Texas Department of State Health Services.”

 



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