Some school-age children have been in contact with the patient being treated in Dallas for Ebola, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday, according to CNN.
Five students at four different schools came into contact with the man, Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles added, but none have shown symptoms of the deadly virus. The children are under supervision at home, and the schools they attended are staying open, Miles said. Between 12 and 18 people are said to have come in contact with the patient, who is the first to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
Concern about possibly spreading the killer virus comes less than a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a person with Ebola was diagnosed in the U.S. for the first time.
The victim traveled from Liberia to Dallas to be with family members and is being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Perry was joined by Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, when he made Wednesday's announcement, NBC reported.
The man initially went to the hospital two days after he first felt sick on Sept. 24 but was allowed to go home and was then brought back to the facility by ambulance on Sept. 28.
Dr. Mark Lester, an executive with the hospital, said despite a nurse using a check list to diagnose Ebola, the patient was allowed to go home because the first team of physicians that assessed him felt he had "a low-grade common viral disease."
Blood tests formally diagnosed Ebola on Tuesday.
