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Paramedics, ER staff under Ebola observation in Dallas

DALLAS — Three Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics and several emergency room workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital are off work and under observation after making contact with the patient being treated for Ebola.

None of the individuals has been identified.

Tuesday night, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta flew in a team of 10 Ebola experts to help local officials and the hospital staff.

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Perhaps the most tangible evidence of Ebola in Dallas is an ambulance parked in a city lot in Pleasant Grove, an area about 15 minutes southeast of downtown Dallas.

It's quarantined and roped off with red tape warning of a biohazard. Ambulance No. 37 carried the Ebola patient to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday morning.

A patient diagnosed with the Ebola virus is being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.(Photo: WFAA)

A Dallas Fire-Rescue crew member said that the paramedics who treated the man put on gloves and a mask after the patient exhibited possible signs of a communicable disease.

"The patient did exhibit high fever, nausea, vomiting, GI issues, along those lines," said Assistant Chief Norman Seals.

Those three Dallas paramedics are under observation for at least three weeks, the maximum amount of time for Ebola symptoms to develop, according to the CDC.

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"I spoke to all three medics personally this evening. They seem relaxed," Seals said. "They didn't have a lot of concern at this time, and were kind of getting a little tickled with the hype coming with this. They seem perfectly at ease."

While doctors at Presbyterian treat the patient, the CDC and Dallas County health officials will begin a "contact investigation," which requires interviewing everyone the patient contacted.

Dallas County Health Director Zachary Thompson said that includes four or five children, several adults, and the emergency medical personnel — about a dozen people in all.

"What we're hearing is that the individual was a traveler," Thompson said. "Then we're hearing they might live here. All this has to be flushed out in this contact investigation."

Thompson maintained the health situation is manageable.