43 declared safe from Ebola risk after active monitoring

Forty-three people in Texas who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first U.S. Ebola patient, are no longer at risk for developing the disease.

That's because 21 days have passed since the group of healthcare workers, family, friends and community members could have had contact with Duncan before he was rushed back to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and admitted to an isolated room, Texas health officials said. None of the individuals has shown symptoms.

Because the virus has a 21-day incubation period, they are no longer considered to be at risk for developing the disease. The people declared no longer at risk include Duncan's girlfriend, their son, Duncan's nephew and a family friend, who were quarantined for weeks because they were with Duncan as he became increasingly ill.

At least 120 people who later came into contact with Duncan or the two nurses who were exposed to the virus while treating him—Nina Pham and Amber Vinson—continue to be monitored, officials said.

Health officials are also continuing to monitor passengers who flew on the two Frontier Airlines flights Vinson took between Cleveland and Dallas. A very small group of individuals who sat within three feet of Vinson are considered to be at a higher risk of exposure and as a result have been asked to stay in their homes until the end of their monitoring period.

The monitoring period for Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC News' chief medical editor, and her crew also ends this week. They worked in Liberia with freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who later developed the virus. Snyderman and her crew were accused this month of violating a voluntary quarantine to get take-out at a New Jersey restaurant. State health officials later made that quarantine mandatory.

Follow Adam Rubenfire on Twitter: @arubenfire