The second healthcare worker in Texas who tested positive Wednesday took a commercial airline flight before becoming ill, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
The CDC said in a statement that the worker, who reported to a Dallas hospital with a low-grade fever and was isolated Tuesday morning, "traveled by air Oct 13, the day before she reported symptoms", Xinhua reported.
"Because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning, CDC is reaching out to passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 (from) Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth Oct 13," the CDC statement said.
The CDC said 132 passengers were on the Frontier Airlines flight that landed at 8.16 p.m.
The agency also quoted the crew as saying that the healthcare worker exhibited no signs or symptoms of illness while on flight 1143, meaning that the worker was not considered contagious at that time.
The second healthcare worker provided care for 42-year-old Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed on American soil who had recently arrived from Liberia and died last Wednesday.
The first healthcare worker in Texas is a nurse who also provided care for Duncan.
Health officials have been interviewing the affected caregiver in Dalla Presbyterian Hospital to identify all the people who might have been exposed to the virus in order to put them under observation, Efe news agency reported.
Nina Pham, the first healthcare worker to contract Ebola in the US, is also in quarantine at the Dallas Presbyterian, where she was reported in good condition Tuesday.
