Reuters) - A Texas health worker who may have had contact with specimens from the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States has been isolated on a cruise ship despite showing no symptoms of the disease, the Department of State said on Friday.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker, who did not have direct contact with now deceased Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan but could have processed his bodily fluids 19 days ago, left on a cruise from Galveston on Sunday, department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement...The employee has been self-monitoring since last Monday and has yet to develop a fever or show any other symptom of Ebola, the statement said. The worker and a companion voluntarily isolated themselves in their cabin, and U.S. officials are arranging for the ship to return to the country.

"We are working with the cruise line to safely bring them back to the United States out of an abundance of caution," Psaki said in the statement.

The person left the country before being notified of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) updated requirement for active monitoring, the statement said.

The Government of Belize said in a statement hours earlier that it had denied a request by U.S. officials to use a Belizean airport to transport a cruise ship passenger considered to be a very low risk for Ebola.