The Ebola cruise ship wasn't in any real danger after results of an Ebola test for one of its passengers came back negative. The CDC announced an active monitoring for all health care workers who might have been in contact with the Liberian national who died from Ebola, but it was too late as one health worker had already boarded the Ebola cruise ship.
Carnival Magic said that after arriving at the port around 5 a.m., the health care worker and her husband who was suspected of having Ebola were allowed to disembark with restrictions, according to the Galveston County Health Department.
Though reports confirmed that the virus has been ruled out on the now dubbed Ebola cruise ship, passengers are reportedly still concerned, reported the New York Times.
More than 4,000 passengers who supposedly had a peaceful vacation aboard the Ebola cruise ship have undergone a seven-day trip in which their vacations were briefly disrupted with the Ebola scare.
The passengers shared their mixed feelings about the scare aboard the Ebola cruise ship as they arrived at the Port of Galveston in Texas Sunday.
The announcement of the Ebola scare last week on the Ebola cruise ship was that a passenger on the Carnival Magic Cruise, who was a Dallas lab supervisor, had handled an Ebola patient's blood samples, which meant the worker may be infected.
Anxieties spread during the Caribbean cruise, with rumors reportedly swirling through the sun decks and dining rooms. Meanwhile, after hearing the CDC announcement, the hospital worker and her husband have agreed to self-quarantine. She and her husband diligently took their temperatures and fortunately had not shown any signs of a fever or other symptoms of Ebola.
19 days have passed and the couple haven't shown signs of the virus, according to officials. They drove home before dawn after leaving the Ebola cruise ship. A few hours later, the remaining passengers were also able to get off the ship.
"We made it!" cheered one of the passengers named Christina Castile. "Thank the Lord."
A Dallas native, the 49-year-old passenger said that she and the other passengers were never worried of Ebola aboard the cruise.
Another passenger by the name of John Cascio said he wasn't too apprehensive during the entire time.
"I really wasn't worried about it," he said. "I knew they would take care of what's supposed to be taken care of."
James Dinkley of Thelma, Texas reportedly took the cruise to celebrate his one-year wedding anniversary with his wife. He said that though there had been initial confusion, the Ebola cruise ship kept everyone updated with developments.
"There was a lot of confusion, especially when they canceled our Cozumel day," he said.
Still, there had been some who were fearful.
One passenger named Chris Perry said the Ebola scare reminded him of the AIDS scare in the late 1980s "where people were just fearful of anybody around it."
"Outside of that, you know, once everybody kind of started understanding, it wasn't that big of a deal," he added.
Another passenger who chose not to be named said he had some concerns during the entire process.
"I was worried because if she did have Ebola, you'd be quarantined on the boat," the passenger said.
However, some said the incident at the Ebola cruise ship wouldn't have happened if the lab worker from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital simply remained indoors.
"She should have taken, on her own, more aggressive precautions," said 63-year-old John Cascio, a Navy veteran and retired electrician. "If you're in contact with it, you just don't do things like that."
On Saturday, a Coast Guard helicopter met with the Ebola cruise ship to collect a blood sample from the hospital employee, according to the Associated Press.
By night time on the same day, passengers' anxieties had reportedly evaporated, and the ship was able to serve Champagne with dinner with people unworried. Carnival also offered vacationers half off for their next cruise, as well as a $200 credit for each person, which they spent on T-shirts, jewellery, at the bar or in the casino.
"I never saw anybody crying or panicking," said passenger Victor Baras as he was preparing to leave the Ebola cruise ship. "It was pretty normal."
According to the State Department, the health care worker had already departed on Oct. 12 and before the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified her of the active monitoring required to all health care workers at Texas Presbyterian. Therefore on Wednesday, federal officials asked that the Ebola cruise ship's medical team to monitor the woman closely.
Thankfully, the woman tested negative, which was announced over the public address system inside the Ebola cruise ship. The woman's lab test results indicated there was no risk to the public, according to the Galveston County Health Department.
According to the CDC, a test can only prove positive after symptoms, such as fever, develop. It may also take up to three days before symptoms to appear and the virus to reach detectable levels.
Officials said that though the health care worker did not have direct contact with Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan, she could have possibly had contact with his clinical specimens. Duncan, the first person on U.S. soil to have contracted the virus, died Oct. 8, reports ABC News.
Two nurses, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, who took care of Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, have already tested positive for Ebola.
The Ebola cruise ship may have been refused clearance to dock in Cozumel, Mexico on Friday and the day before Belize didn't allow the health worker from leaving ship the day before, but it appeared that all passengers have enjoyed their cruise. Meanwhile, according to CDC officials, the Ebola cruise ship have been sanitized before departure yesterday.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
