This is more evidence that the average hospital in the U.S. is not ready for Ebola and that at least for now, until they are ready all Ebola victims need to be sent to one of the 4 biocontainment units in the U.S. that are prepared for Ebola so this doesn't happen anymore (or at least is under better control for now).
Second Health Care Worker in Texas Tests Positive for Ebola, Authorities Say
| ABC News | - |
A
second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who
provided care for Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola, the
Texas Department of State Health Services announced.
Second Ebola Nurse Violated Guidelines By Flying on Commercial Jet
A second Texas nurse who has tested positive for Ebola violated
infection control guidelines by flying on a commercial jetliner from
Cleveland to Dallas the night before she arrived at the hospital with a
fever, officials said today.
The nurse, who has been identified as Amber Vinson, 29, was part of the
team at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who took care of Thomas Eric
Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola on Oct. 8.
She is the second member of the hospital staff to contract the virus and
a Dallas official warned today that additional cases among the
hospital's health care workers are a "very real possibility."
Vinson was one of the nurses who was very involved with the care for
Ebola patient Duncan, who died of Ebola at the Dallas hospital. She drew
his blood, inserted catheters, and dealt with his bodily fluids,
according to Duncan's medical records obtained by the Associated Press.
"Because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have
exposure to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial
airline," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. "From this moment forward, we will ensure that
no individual monitored for exposure undergoes travel in any way other
than controlled movement," he said referring to non-public
transportation, such as a personal car or chartered flight.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said today that the
newest Ebola patient would be transferred from Dallas to Emory
University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, which has successfully treated
other Ebola patients.
President Obama was supposed to visit New Jersey and Connecticut today,
but he canceled the trip to hold a cabinet meeting in the White House to
coordinate a response to the Ebola outbreak.
The CDC is reaching out to the 132 passengers who flew with the woman on
Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 on Monday evening, landing in Dallas at
8:16 p.m. The health care worker had no symptoms during the flight, the
CDC said, but officials are identifying and notifying passengers because
she arrived at the hospital with a fever the following morning.
Once the Frontier Airlines flight landed in Dallas, the plane was
cleaned for the evening before flying out the next day, according to a
statement from Frontier Airlines, which said its procedures are
"consistent with CDC guidelines." It was cleaned again in Cleveland the
following night.
Frieden said that although the patient was self-monitoring because she
had helped take care Thomas Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola at
the Dallas hospital. Although her temperature didn't meet the 104 degree
"threshold," he said she had a temperature of 99.5 degrees.
Both nurses who became infected had contact with Duncan in his first
days in the Dallas hospital -- on Sept. 28, 29 and 30 -- when he was
having "substantial amounts" of vomiting and had diarrhea, according to
Frieden. He said officials will be assessing other health workers who
had extensive contact with Duncan on these days.
“The fight against Ebola in Dallas is a two-front fight now,” Dallas
County Judge Clay Jenkins said, speaking at a morning press conference.
Authorities said they are now tracking 75 people following the second
hospital worker’s diagnosis. The unidentified health care worker
reported a fever Tuesday and was isolated at the hospital, authorities
said.
The preliminary Ebola test was run late Tuesday at the state public
health laboratory in Austin, and results were received at about
midnight, authorities said. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has begun confirmation testing.
The woman was put into isolation within 90 minutes, and she is dealing with her diagnosis "with grit and grace," Jenkins said.
Authorities said this may not be the last case to be found among the hospital’s staff.
"We are preparing contingencies for more and that is a very real possibility," Jenkins said.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings also suggested additional people may get sick.
"It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better,” the mayor said.
Dr. Daniel Varga of Texas Health Resources defended practices at the
hospital, which has faced criticism amid the Ebola diagnoses.
“It’s clear there was an exposure somewhere, sometime in our treatment
of Duncan. Let’s be clear we’re a hospital that serves this community
extremely well,” Varga said at the press conference.
“We’re the first to diagnose and treat this insidious disease that has attacked two of our own.”
City workers went to the neighborhood of the second patient early this
morning to knock on doors to alert people to the news and to be alert to
possible symptoms. They handed out flyers and later began robo calls to
the area, Varga said.
Rawlings said the community remains vigilant.
“The only way that we are going to beat this is person by person, moment
by moment, detail by detail,” Rawlings said. "While Dallas is anxious
about this … We are not fearful.”
Health officials interviewed the patient, hoping to track down any
contacts or potential exposures in the community, the CDC said in a
statement.
"While this is troubling news for the patient, the patient’s family and
colleagues and the greater Dallas community, the CDC and the Texas
Department of State Health Services remain confident that wider spread
in the community can be prevented with proper public health measures
including ongoing contact tracing, health monitoring among those known
to have been in contact with the index patient and immediate isolations
if symptoms develop," the CDC said in a statement.
Authorities visited the patient's apartment this morning to begin decontamination efforts.
The workers donned hazmat suits, trying to protect themselves from exposure.
The new diagnosis comes days after nurse Nina Pham, 26, who also treated
Duncan, was diagnosed with Ebola. Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola Sept.
30 and died Oct. 8.
Burwell admitted that the reasons for the hospital workers becoming infected aren't clear.
"Those are people that came in contact because we don't understand
exactly how the breach in protocol occurred," Burwell told ABC News
today. "We are taking the precaution of making sure that anyone within
that treatment phase will be tracked and monitored in a more serious
way."
Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in the West African
countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to recent
figures by the World Health Organization.
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