Quarantine in effect for Ebola patient's relatives

The Dallas family of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan is waiting under armed guard in their apartment for a cleaning crew to sanitize their home. The county hired a company to decontaminate the apartment Thursday, but they lacked the proper permits to transport hazardous material. The cleaning is set to take place today. Louise Troh, her 13-year-old son, and two nephews were put under a containment order after they defied a request to stay home.

“Who wants to be locked up?” she said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Between 12 and 18 other people who had contact with Duncan while he was sick are being watched closely, according to the Dallas County Health and Human Services agency. And people who have had contact with those people have been told to notify medical workers at the first sign of illness. The web of potential exposures includes about 100 people.

The good news for those people is that only a person who is actively sick with the virus can transmit Ebola. So far, Duncan is the only one who showed symptoms. Ebola spreads only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. The bad news is that Ebola can survive for several hours on surfaces after fluids have dried.

Meanwhile, an American cameraman working with NBC News in Liberia has contracted Ebola and is being flown back to the United States for medical care, along with the rest of his crew.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.