A team of professional hazardous materials handlers have been tasked with scrubbing the apartment where a man diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus lives.
Employees of the Fort Worth-based Cleaning Guys company, outfitted in yellow head-to-toe “haz mat” suits, entered the Dallas apartment on Friday, according to KEYE-TV in Dallas. The workers unloaded supplies from their 36-foot trailer — including respirators, decontamination materials, safety equipment and even a kiddie swimming pool — before sealing off the apartment unit.
Company spokeswoman Tamara Smith said the team will follow standard protocols for dealing with hazardous materials. They will remove all linens and trash to an undisclosed landfill, where they will be incinerated. The haz mat suits the workers are wearing also will be burned, she said.
The victim — Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, a Liberian citizen — is being treated at a local hospital. Four people who lived in his apartment had been quarantined there by court order, but recently were allowed to move to another apartment. Another 50 people who came into contact with Duncan while he was contagious are being monitored by Dallas health officials.
The company, which was hired by Dallas County, charges $185 per hour for a truck and one technician, but Smith would not give an total cost estimate for the Ebola cleanup.
Ebola is a highly contagious, fast-moving virus that already has killed hundreds of people in Africa. While Duncan’s may be the first case in the US, two other Americans were brought here from Africa for treatment after they contracted Ebola, and another American — NBC freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo — was diagnosed with the virus in Monrovia and is being transported to the Nebraska Medical Center for treatment.