TransportationA reporter is tweeting photos and updates from the Carnival cruise ship that turned around after the captain announced that someone on board might have been exposed to a Texas Ebola patient's fluids.
It's a pretty scary situation, but Eric Lupher, of Denver TV station KMGH, says that everyone on board has remained pretty calm:
#ebola scare on my vacay. Still a party on the ship though we weren't allowed to get off in Cozumel. pic.twitter.com/yobL4wnJ6O
- Eric Lupher (@EricLupher7News) October 17, 2014
Despite #Ebola scare...people still eating at the buffet @DenverChannel pic.twitter.com/cTIIx1C5lo
- Eric Lupher (@EricLupher7News) October 17, 2014
The ship tried to dock in Belize, but the government wouldn't allow it. Mexico also turned the ship away. The cruise is now reportedly heading back to Texas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted the cruise operator on Wednesday that a guest on the ship was a lab supervisor at the hospital where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was treated.
Duncan contracted Ebola in Liberia and flew to the US for a visit before he started showing symptoms. He died in Texas last week.
The health worker on board the cruise ship is at very low risk for contracting Ebola and hasn't shown any symptoms. She is reportedly isolated in a cabin on board the ship.
"At no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection, and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with the testing samples," Carnival said in a statement.
Cruise passengers will reportedly get a partial refund to make up for missing a planned stop in Cozumel.
Lupher told The Daily Beast that it's mostly business as usual on the cruise: "[People] are trusting the fact that the CDC has cleared them. Everyone is in the pool … and at the computers to find out the latest information. ... Everyone, including me, is not afraid we'll get sick and die."