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October 20, 2014

Duncan Contacts Declared Ebola-Free in Texas After 21-Day Monitoring Ends 
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In the United States, most of those who had contact with the late Ebola
patient Thomas Eric Duncan have been cleared of the disease. The 21-day
monitoring period ended Sunday for the around 50 people who had direct
or indirect contact with Duncan. Duncan was diagnosed in Texas after
arriving from his native Liberia. In his weekly address, President Obama
said he continues to oppose a travel ban on passengers from West Africa.

President Obama: "We can't just cut ourselves off from West Africa,
where this disease is raging. Our medical experts tell us that the best
way to stop this disease is to stop it at its source, before it spreads
even wider and becomes even more difficult to contain. Trying to seal
off an entire region of the world, if that were even possible, could
actually make the situation worse. It would make it harder to move
healthcare workers and supplies back and forth. Experience shows that it
could also cause people in the affected region to change their travel,
to evade screening, and make the disease even harder to track."

 

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