The second American nurse infected with Ebola at a Texas hospital was identified Wednesday as 29-year-old Amber Vinson. It was reported by FoxNews that she took a domestic flight — reportedly to prepare for her wedding in Cleveland, just one day before coming down with symptoms of the deadly disease.
Officials said Vinson was not contagious when she flew through Cleveland, but are working to put together a timeline of Vinson’s whereabouts.
Frieden said that because Vinson was not vomiting or having other symptoms on the plane, the risk to other passengers remains extremely low. Out of an abundance of caution, the CDC said they will be reaching out to all the passengers and crew who were on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13.
Airline crew members said the female health care worker was reportedly not exhibiting symptoms during the flight.
The CDC said it will begin interviewing the 132 passengers on the flight, answering their questions, and scheduling follow-up meetings on Wednesday.
The Frontier Airlines plane that Vinson traveled on has been decontaminated twice in a remote location and was put back into service for a flight to Denver, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport director Ricky Smith said in a press conference Wednesday.
The risk of exposure, in a report by CNN , to the passengers who were on the plane with Vinson is low, since she did not yet have symptoms, health officials said Wednesday. The Ebola virus is not contagious before symptoms set in.
Still, the CDC wants to interview all 132 passengers who were on the plane with her.
“Because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning, CDC is reaching out to passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth Oct. 13,” the CDC said in a statement. The flight landed Monday at 8:16 p.m. CT.
The woman “exhibited no symptoms or sign of illness while on Flight 1143, according to the crew,” Frontier Airlines said in a statement.
Vinson flew from Dallas-Fort Worth to Cleveland a week ago, on October 8, said Toinette Parrilla, director of the Cleveland Department of Public Health.
Photo Credit: Slate.com
