Cruise line says lab worker is isolated and isn’t a risk

WASHINGTON (AP) — Carnival Cruise Lines says the Texas health care worker who is on board the Carnival Magic cruise ship is in isolation and is “not deemed to be a risk” to passengers or crew members.

The worker had handled a lab specimen from a Liberian man who died from Ebola.

Officials in Washington say the woman is self-quarantined on the Caribbean cruise ship, and is being monitored for infection. They say the woman has shown no signs of the disease. A State Department spokeswoman says when the woman left the U.S. on the cruise ship from Galveston, Texas last week, health officials were requiring only self-monitoring.

The cruise line says in a statement that it’s been in “close contact” with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the company says “the appropriate course of action” is to keep the passenger “in isolation on board.”

An administration official has said that the cruise ship stopped in Belize, but that officials there would not allow the passenger to leave the vessel.

%@AP Links

140-v-35-(Mark Smith, AP White House correspondent)–The Obama administration is tracking a Dallas health care worker who went on a Caribbean cruise after handling a lab specimen from the Ebola patient who died. AP White House Correspondent Mark Smith reports. (17 Oct 2014)

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025-c-14-(Jim Kuhnhenn (KOO’-nehn), AP correspondent)-“did as well”-AP correspondent Jim Kuhnhenn (KOO’-nehn) reports federal officials have been in touch with the cruiseline and the health care worker, and at this point they don?t feel she poses any risk. (17 Oct 2014)

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Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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