2nd health worker contracts Ebola in Dallas
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A SECOND health care worker at a Dallas hospital who provided care for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States has tested positive for the disease, the Texas Department of State Health Services said yesterday.
The worker reported a fever on Tuesday and was isolated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Health officials said the worker was among those who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, who was diagnosed with Ebola after traveling to the US from Liberia. Duncan died on October 8.
The department said a preliminary Ebola test conducted late on Tuesday came back positive. Further testing was being conducted at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The statement said the health worker, who wasn’t named, was interviewed to identify contacts and potential exposures. It said others who had interacted with the worker will be monitored.
Officials said they don’t know how the first health worker, a nurse, became infected. But the second case pointed to lapses beyond how one individual might have donned and removed personal protective garb.
“An additional health worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern, and the CDC has already taken active steps to minimize the risk to health care workers and the patient,” the CDC said in a statement.
“What happened there (in Dallas), regardless of the reason, is not acceptable. It shouldn’t have happened,” Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH, said yesterday on MSNBC.
Fauci said he envisioned the CDC taking “a much more involved role” in establishing the proper training protocols for Ebola cases.
Dr Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, has acknowledged that the government wasn’t aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected patient to a nurse at a Dallas hospital.
“We could’ve sent a more robust infection control team and been more hands-on from day one,” he said on Tuesday.
Frieden outlined new steps this week designed to stop the spread of the disease, including the creation of an Ebola response team, increased training for health workers and changes at the Texas hospital to minimize the risk of more infections.
“I wish we had put a team like this on the ground the day the patient — the first patient — was diagnosed,” Frieden said.
The stark admission came as the World Health Organization projected the pace of infections accelerating in West Africa to as many as 10,000 new cases a week within two months.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell yesterday on NBC’s Today show sidestepped questions about whether she had confidence in the Texas hospital where the health workers were diagnosed with Ebola or whether they should be transferred to one of four specialized hospitals.
“We will keep all options and considerations right now,” she said.
In a conference call late on Tuesday, the US’s largest nurses’ union described how the patient, Duncan, was left in an open area of the emergency room for hours. National Nurses United, citing nurses, said staff treated Duncan for days without the correct protective gear, that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling and safety protocols constantly changed.
A total of 76 people at the hospital might have been exposed to Duncan, and all are being monitored daily, Frieden said.
Nurse Nina Pham contracted the virus while caring for Duncan. Health officials are monitoring 48 others who had some contact with him.
Frieden said some of the world’s leading experts on how to treat Ebola and protect health workers are in the response team. They will review issues including how isolation rooms are set out, what protective gear health workers use, waste management and decontamination.
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