Ebola bridal shop to shut down

THE ‘Ebola shop’ owner has announced her store can no longer survive and will shut down forever from next month.

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015, Coming Attractions Bridal & Formal Shop owner Anna Younker (right) talks with Nicole Jones of Tallmadge about her daughter's wedding dress in Akron, Ohio. Operators of the northeast Ohio bridal shop linked to an Ebola survivor say the store is closing because it lost significant business and has been stigmatized. (AP Photo/Akron Beacon Journal, Phil Masturzo ) MANDATORY CREDIT

THE latest Ebola outbreak has been a scourge that has claimed thousands of lives and destroyed even more families.

It’s also wreaked havoc on the economies of the countries it’s hit the hardest — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

But while these countries have been devastated by the disease, a small business in Ohio has also been hit hard.

A bridal shop in Ohio has gone out of business simply because an infected American nurse, 29-year old Amber Vinson, had visited the store three days before she had been diagnosed.

Coming Attractions Bridal & Formal had to be closed for three weeks in October when it emerged Ms Vinson had visited the store while scouting for her own pending nuptials. Despite extensive cleaning and no evidence there was any sign of Ebola in the store, the bridal shop wasn’t able to bounce back from the exposure.

Nurse Amber Vinson had treated a Liberian man with Ebola before being diagnosed herself.

Owner Anna Younker told the Northeast Ohio Media Group: “We had a big opening and we had hoped that the publicity may even have been a good thing. But now we are the Ebola shop. Customers are tired of hearing ‘Oh, you bought it at the Ebola shop’”.

Ms Younker told the Akron Beacon Journal that the temporary closure last year and cancelled orders cost the business at least $US100,000, which wasn’t covered by insurance.

Ms Younker wrote on the store’s Facebook page: “I am sad to announce that Coming Attractions Bridal & Formal is being forced to wind down its operations after thirty years of service due to the devastating effect that recent events have had on our business. Despite our best efforts, we simply have been unable to recover.

“The decision for me to close was not easy for me. Over the years I have met and worked with the most amazing brides, mothers of brides, bridesmaids, prom girls and many other wonderful people.”

Coming Attractions wasn’t able to recover from being known as the ‘Ebola shop’.

Ms Vinson was one of two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who became infected with Ebola from a patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who had flown in from Liberia. In between treating Mr Duncan and being diagnosed herself, she flew home to Ohio and spent several days with her mother, including one in which she visited the bridal shop.

She was later treated and cleared of the illness.

In November, Ms Vinson wrote to Coming Attractions and asked for a refund for bridesmaid dresses she had purchased during the initial October visit.