The Ebola-infected nurse who flew from Dallas to Ohio has three relatives who work at Kent State University but did not visit the campus during her visit, officials said Wednesday. A university spokesman said no one from the school had been quarantined but the relatives are being asked to stay off campus and monitor themselves for signs of illness for 21 days.
"They did come in contact with her. They did visit campus," university spokesman Eric Mansfield said of the three employees. The school declined to name the staffers and would not say what areas they visited in before they left campus.
The nurse, Amber Vinson, "stayed with her family at their home in Summit County and did not step foot on our campus," university President Beverly Warren said in a statement. "We want to assure our university community that we are taking this information seriously, taking steps to communicate what we know."
Vinson had extensive contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of Ebola at Texas Presbyterian Hospital on Oct. 8. She traveled from Dallas to Cleveland that day, according to Cleveland health officials, and returned to Dallas on Monday.
She was placed in isolation Tuesday after she reported a fever. Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters she should not have been flying — because she had cared for the Ebola patient and because she had a temperature of 99.5 degrees before she boarded to go home.
Those infected with the Ebola are not considered contagious until they show symptoms, such as a fever.
