DALLAS — Youngor Jallah spent the last three weeks confined to her small apartment with her children and boyfriend, fearing they had contracted the deadly Ebola virus from her mother’s fiance. ADVERTISING DALLAS — Youngor Jallah spent the last three
DALLAS — Youngor Jallah spent the last three weeks confined to her small apartment with her children and boyfriend, fearing they had contracted the deadly Ebola virus from her mother’s fiance.
But with the household emerging symptom-free from a 21-day incubation period, Jallah’s family members are now trying to resume their lives – replacing the personal belongings incinerated in a cleanup at her mother’s home, and overcoming the stigma of the Ebola scare that has gripped Dallas.
On Monday, Jallah beamed with pride as she sent her children back to school with clearance from the Dallas County health department tucked into their backpacks. Her mother emerged from her own confinement and spent the early afternoon looking for a new place to live.
“We were sitting here traumatized,” Jallah told The Associated Press on Monday. “We just thank God we never came down with the virus.”
The city of Dallas announced Monday it is coordinating with a local church and donors to provide Jallah’s mother, Louise Troh, with funds to pay for six months of housing. Once she chooses a location, nonprofits will assist the family with furniture, linens and other household items, the city said.
Troh’s fiance, Thomas Eric Duncan, was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. He died Oct. 8.
Health officials said Monday about 50 people have passed the incubation period safely. Others who are still being monitored include health care workers who treated Duncan as well as those who cared for two nurses who had treated Duncan and also became infected.
There are now about 120 people in Texas being monitored for symptoms, with their wait period ending Nov. 7, said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. He said the number may fluctuate.
There are also about 140 people being monitored in Ohio because of contact or potential contact with nurse Amber Vinson, Ohio officials said. Vinson, who cared for Duncan in Texas, flew from Dallas to Cleveland on Oct. 10 and flew back Oct. 13.
An Ebola patient who was being treated in Atlanta since early September has been released from Emory University Hospital after he was determined to be free of the virus and no threat to the public. Hospital and health officials never released his name, in keeping with his family’s wish for privacy.
Health officials said they were relieved as the monitoring period ended for many, and after a cruise ship scare ended with the boat returning to port in Texas and a lab worker on board testing negative for the virus.
After Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola, Troh, her 13-year-old son, Duncan’s nephew and a family friend were ordered by a Dallas court to stay inside the apartment among Duncan’s used linens. Five days later they were evacuated to a four-bedroom home in an isolated corner of a 13-acre gated property owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas, southwest of downtown.
Except for a few plastic bins filled with personal documents, photographs, trophies and a Bible, the apartment was stripped down to the carpeting and the contents were incinerated.
“We want to restore what’s lost but more than that, we want to give her a running start on her new life,” said Troh’s pastor, George Mason of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.
While health workers cleared Jallah of having Ebola, the disease’s stigma lingers — including among fellow Liberians, she said.
“If they see me at the store, they run away,” she said.
Vinson is being treated at the specialized unit at Emory University Hospital. Another nurse who treated Duncan, Nina Pham, also is being treated for Ebola.
Nurses have been clamoring for more guidance and better garb, saying they have never cared for Ebola patients before and feel unprepared and underequipped.
Revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for health care workers treating Ebola patients will include using protective gear “with no skin showing,” a top U.S. federal health official said Sunday, and the Pentagon announced it was forming a team to assist medical staff in the U.S., if needed.
