Ohio health officials indicated on Wednesday that a total of 164 people in the state are being monitored for Ebola after having had content or potential contact with Amber Joy Vinson, a Texas nurse who visited the Akron area ahead of her Ebola diagnosis. Vinson's family also announced on Wednesday that the Ebola virus is no longer detectable in her body.
Officials say that the number of people being monitored will fluctuate daily, but the number of those being quarantined in their homes remains at three. One of those being quarantined is Vinson's stepfather. Seventeen of those in Ohio being monitored are having their temperature taken twice daily by public health officials and have been told not to travel on commercial carriers. To date, no one in Ohio has been diagnosed with Ebola.
Vinson's family issued a statement Wednesday afternoon indicating that she is free of the Ebola virus and is regaining her strength. Her mother, Debra Berry, spoke to Vinson at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and said that healthcare professionals there have determined that there are no detectable copies of the virus in her body. Her family issued the following statement:
"Amber and our family are ecstatic to receive this latest report on her condition," Berry said in an email. "We all know that further treatment will be necessary as Amber continues to regain strength, but these developments have truly answered prayers and bring our family one step closer to reuniting with her at home."
Vinson, 29, is a graduate of Akron's Firestone High School. She currently works as a nurse at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, which is where she was one of many nurses who cared for Eric Thomas Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., who later died. Vinson drew blood from Duncan and at one point inserted a catheter. She and another nurse at the same hospital, Nina Pham, were later both diagnosed with the disease.
Before her diagnosis, Vinson traveled to Akron, arriving in the area at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.