Update at 3:26 p.m. ET. Man Is Located:
Authorities have located a homeless man who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola in a Dallas hospital, the AP reports, quoting a Dallas city spokeswoman.
Earlier today, authorities said the man was in the ambulance that took Duncan to the hospital.
While he is a "low-risk individual," health authorities still want to monitor him for symptoms throughout the disease's incubation period of 21 days.
Our Original Post Continues:
Authorities in Dallas are looking for a man who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola in a Dallas hospital.
"We have our Dallas County Sheriff's Department and Dallas Police Department teams on the ground," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a statement. "We are working to locate the individual and get him to a comfortable, compassionate place where we can monitor him and care for his every need for the full incubation period."
The Dallas Morning News reports the man, who may be homeless, was in the ambulance that took Duncan to the hospital. The paper adds:
"The ambulance was effectively quarantined last week after [Duncan] was diagnosed with Ebola. The emergency medical services crew who transported him has been asked to stay home for 21 days or so. All of them have tested negative for Ebola.
"Dallas Fire-Rescue officials have said little about the incident. Officials with other EMS agencies noted that it's standard practice to decontaminate ambulances after they transport a patient."
As we've reported, the CDC has said that they are watching 10 people carefully. Those people had enough direct contact with Duncan to potentially have been infected. Three of them are family members or community members and seven are healthcare workers.
Jenkins said the man they are looking for is a "low risk" individual.
Update at 12:18 p.m. ET. No New Cases:
Speaking to reporters, Dr. David Lakey, the commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said authorities have not seen any new cases of Ebola.
"No one has reported any symptoms," Lakey said.
Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that Duncan had "taken a turn for the worse."
He added that while he believes that the United States will control the spread of Ebola, here, he wants hospitals to be on "high alert," so potential cases are identified quickly and preventive measures can be taken.
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