A Dallas hospital nurse travelling on board Carnival Magic who was denied entry to Belize on the grounds of potentially being exposed to Ebola virus is showing no symptoms of the disease, and is quarantined on the ship as a measure of precaution, the Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement.
“Late afternoon on Wednesday, October 15, we were made aware by the U.S. CDC of a guest sailing this week on board Carnival Magic who is a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
“At no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with the testing samples. She is deemed by CDC to be very low risk.
“At this time, the guest remains in isolation on board the ship and is not deemed to be a risk to any guests or crew,” Carnival Cruise Lines said in the statement.
The U.S. State Department said it was working with the cruise line to safely bring the couple back to the United States “out of an abundance of caution.”
The Texas Health Presbyterian hospital nurse, who set off on a cruise from Galveston, Texas on October 12, did not have “direct contact” with the deceased Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan who died on October 8, and “has not had a fever or demonstrated any symptoms of illness,” according to the State Department.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the maximum incubation window for the disease is 21 days. It has been 19 days since the passenger may have processed the since deceased patient’s fluid samples, said the State Department.
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