Date: October 24th, 2014 10:46 AM
Author: Flatulent Dashing Pit
Owner of Bridal Shop Visited by Ebola Nurse Puts Herself into Quarantine
Fall is usually a busy season for Anna Younker, owner of Coming Attractions Bridal & Formal in Akron, Ohio.
But shortly after Amber Vinson, 29, one of two Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital nurses to be infected with the Ebola virus, visited Younker's shop on Oct. 11, Younker put herself into quarantine and temporarily shuttered her shop.
Then, as Younker looked at a receipt with Vinson's name on it from that Saturday, the reality sank in: She had been exposed to someone with Ebola and so had her store.
She shut Coming Attraction's doors that night, and the shop has remained closed ever since.
"I saw Amber looking sickly, and I should have been more concerned," she says. "But she gave no signs of not wanting to expose us. That's why when I found out, I was so surprised."
The deadly virus, which is currently ravaging West Africa, spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids and can only be transmitted to another person when the afflicted is showing symptoms of the illness, experts say.
Though it seems unlikely that Younker contracted the disease from Vinson, she remains housebound, checking her temperature twice a day for the duration of the virus's 21-day incubation period.
Still, it's the stigma of the disease, not Ebola itself, that worries her.
"I had a customer ask me yesterday, 'Is my dress covered in Ebola?' " Younker says. "Someone told me that I should take all the dresses and burn them. Isn't that crazy?"
Even Younker's 10-year-old son, who had no contact with Vinson at all, can't escape the terrible stigma.
"There are parents calling my son's school saying they don't want him there," she says. "It's tough."
For now, Younker is keeping him home to ease fellow parents' minds. As for her store, it's received a thorough cleaning, but it will remain shuttered for the 21-day period.
Younker hopes that will be enough to give the public peace of mind. "I feel like if I don't let that pass," she says, "more customers will die."
Even so, she says, "I am staying home as I have been advised to do until Nov. 1, which is the 21st day. But if my son is welcomed back to school sooner than that, then I know the public is comfortable with us once again."
http://www.people.com/article/anna-younker-bridal-shop-quarantine-ebola
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2708239&forum_id=2#26577088)