Texas health care worker self-quarantines on cruise ship in the Caribbean

A female healthcare worker from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital is reportedly quarantined on board Carnival Cruise ship Magic (pictured) in the Caribbean over an Ebola scare.

A Texas health-care worker who "may have" handled lab specimens from Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan has been isolated on board a Carnival cruise ship in the Caribbean. The worker has shown no symptoms of the disease, according to Carnival, which said it is in close contact with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A Carnival spokeswoman said the guest, who was not named, will remain on board in voluntary isolation until the ship returns to its home port of Galveston on Sunday.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital employee and a partner boarded the ship Oct. 12 in Galveston, Tex., before the CDC updated the requirement for active monitoring, the State Department said in a statement. Although the worker is healthy, the U.S. government is working with the cruise line to get the ship back to America "out of an abundance of caution."

The employee, who has not been named, did not come into direct contact with Duncan, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. However, he or she may have been exposed to his clinical specimens, the State Department said.

The news comes amid growing concerns after two nurses who cared for Duncan tested positive for Ebola.

Amber Vinson was diagnosed with Ebola earlier this week - a day after she flew with a fever on a Frontier Airlines flight from Cleveland back to Dallas. Since then, the CDC has contacted the 132 passengers who flew with her. However, officials said Thursday she may have shown symptoms as many as four days before they initially indicated. Now the CDC says it is busy tracking all passengers who were on her first flight to Ohio last week.

Nina Pham was diagnosed Oct. 11, just three days after Duncan died from the disease. She was flown Thursday night to the National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md., after delivering an upbeat but tearful greeting via video.

Pham and Vinson were among nearly 100 workers who cared for Duncan in the Dallas hospital. Psaki said that as part of the CDC's contract trace investigation, it was discovered that another employee of the Dallas hospital had left the country on a cruise ship.

As for the worker on the ship, the State Department said that at the time she boarded, CDC protocol called for "self-monitoring," including daily temperature checks.

"It has been 19 days since the passenger may have processed" Duncan's fluid samples, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement early Friday morning. "The cruise line has actively supported CDC's efforts to speak with the individual, whom the cruise ship's medical doctor has monitored and confirmed was in good health. Following this examination, the hospital employee and traveling partner have voluntarily remained isolated in a cabin."

On Thursday, Daniel Varga, the chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources, which oversees Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, said in a statement submitted to a congressional committee that, "Today, every person at Texas Health Dallas who has had contact with a known Ebola patient is under active monitoring for 21 days after their last contact with the patient,"

Belizean news reports stated that the cruise ship Carnival Magic was offshore after the government of Belize learned that a U.S. hospital worker on board may have been exposed to Ebola and that the Belize Coast Guard was deployed to prevent the ship from going into port. The government of Belize assured its citizens that the health-care professional "never set foot in Belize."

A Carnival spokeswoman, however, said the ship made its scheduled visit to Belize Thursday. "Passengers were free to disembark there for the day other than the guest and her traveling companion who are in voluntary isolation."

In its own statement Thursday, the the Belize government said it "was contacted today by officers of the U.S. Government and made aware of a cruise ship passenger considered of very low risk for Ebola.... Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, the Government of Belize decided not to facilitate a U.S. request for assistance in evacuating the passenger through the Phillip Goldson International Airport."

Duncan died at the Dallas hospital Oct. 8. It's not certain what kind of lab specimen the hospital worker may have handled. Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids such as vomit, urine, saliva, sweat, feces, breast milk and semen. And it's not clear what, if any, protective gear he or she was wearing at the time of contact.