A health care worker from Dallas who handled Thomas Duncan's Ebola samples boarded a cruise ship to the Caribbean, but she is being monitored for symptoms in a self - quarantined area, ABC News reported on Friday.
The worker, whose name has not been released, had left the country before being notified of mandatory symptom monitoring put in place by the CDC. Those regulations were established after Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, both nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, tested positive for the deadly virus.
The woman aboard the Carnival Magic cruise didn't have potentially life - threatening contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, but authorities said she did handle his medical specimens. Though quarantined off the coast of Belize, she has not come down with a high fever or any other tell - tale symptoms of the virus.
"The worker has voluntarily remained in the cabin and the State Department and cruise line are working to bring the worker back to the U.S. out of an abundance of caution," the Department of State said in the release, according to ABC News.
The virus takes approximately 21 days to show symptoms. The worker handled Duncan's specimens 19 days ago, CNN reported. A doctor aboard the ocean liner has deemed the woman in good health so far.
A request to evacuate the woman through an international airport in Belize City was rejected by government officials.
In a statement addressing the situation, Carnival Cruises wanted to calm the nerves of vacationers by saying the worked had a low risk of being infected with the virus.
"We are in close contact with the CDC and at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board," the statement said.
Meanwhile, Pham and Vinson remain in seperate quarantines and remain in stable condition, though that status may change as they go through the cycle of the illness, NBC reported.
