WEDNESDAY, Oct. 1, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Federal health officials are monitoring up to 18 people who were exposed to the man being treated at a Dallas hospital for the first confirmed case of Ebola in the United States.
Some of the 18 people are members of the unidentified man's family. The group also includes the three-member ambulance crew that transported the man on Sunday to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The ambulance workers have tested negative for the highly lethal virus that has been ravaging several West African nations, and are confined to their homes for observation, the news service said.
"If anyone develops fever, we'll immediately isolate them to stop the chain of transmission," Tom Frieden, M.D., director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the AP. People who had contact with the patient will be monitored for fever during the next 21 days, which is the maximum incubation period for Ebola, Frieden said.