The nurse was on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 on October 13, just one day before she became feverish

Oct 16, 2014 11:25 GMT  ·  By
US' third Ebola patient announced to have traveled by plane before being diagnosed
   US' third Ebola patient announced to have traveled by plane before being diagnosed

This past Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the country's third Ebola patient had traveled by plane just one day before she started displaying symptoms linked to the deadly disease and was admitted to hospital.

More precisely, it is understood that, on October 13, the woman traveled from Cleveland to Dallas on Frontier Airlines flight 1143. At that time, nobody had any idea that the nurse was infected with the Ebola virus.

As reported just yesterday, this woman is the US' third Ebola patient thus far. Like one other healthcare worker before her, i.e. Nina Pham, the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas nurse contracted the virus from 42-year-old Thomas Eric Duncan.

Thus, it was this man who brought the deadly virus to the US after traveling to Liberia. Thomas Eric Duncan was admitted to hospital on September 28 and passed away just a few days later, on October 8.

On October 10, one of the healthcare workers who helped treat the 42-year-old was found to have contracted the virus, and just yesterday, one other nurse employed at the same hospital where Thomas Eric Duncan was kept in isolation was diagnosed with the deadly disease as well.

As mentioned, it was this nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola this past October 15 who traveled from Cleveland to Dallas earlier this week. For the time being, her identity remains a mystery.

What's being done?

Health officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the people who shared a plane with the nurse will all be contacted, interviewed and warned that they might have been infected with the Ebola virus.

Live Science tells us that, according to specialists with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the only patients that should be monitored for Ebola are the ones who sat at a distance of one seat in all directions from the carrier.

Still, it looks like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is quite determined to assess the health condition of all the people who were aboard the Frontier Airlines flight 1143 this past October 13. Hopefully, neither of these people will be found to have contracted the virus.

Captain Hindsight strikes again

During a press conference, Dr. Tom Frieden, the current director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that, since this second nurse diagnosed with Ebola was among the people documented to have had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, she should not have been allowed to fly.

“She should not have been allowed to travel by plane or any public transport,” Dr. Tom Frieden told the press. He further explained that, since the woman was not displaying Ebola symptoms at the time she boarded the plane, she was highly unlikely to infect any of the other passengers who were on the same flight. More so given the fact that Ebola is only transmitted by coming into contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.

More information is expected to be shared with the public in the hours to come, so keep an eye on this page for updates.