The family who Mr. Duncan had been living with also broke the quarantine, and had to be ordered by a judge to stay home. They’re now quarantined, but have people delivering them food and material without any protective gear. Some residents in the apartment complex said that they hadn’t even been contacted by the CDC. One man who had definite exposure to Mr. Duncan was being checked every day by the CDC, but had not been told to stay indoors. He himself figured he should but didn’t know what to do about food.
Via NY Times:
DALLAS — More than six months after an outbreak of Ebola began its rampage through West Africa, local and federal health officials have displayed an uneven and flawed response to the first case diagnosed in the United States.
In the latest indication, state and local authorities confirmed Thursday that a week after a Liberian man fell ill with Ebola in Dallas, and four days after he was placed in isolation at a hospital here, the apartment where he was staying with four other people had not been sanitized and the sheets and dirty towels he used while sick remained in the home. County officials visited the apartment without protection Wednesday night.
The officials said it had been difficult to find a contractor willing to enter the apartment to clean it and remove bedding and clothes, which they said had been bagged in plastic. They said they now had hired a firm that would do the work soon. The Texas health commissioner, Dr. David Lakey, told reporters during an afternoon news conference that officials had encountered “a little bit of hesitancy” in seeking a firm to clean the apartment.
HT: WTD