American Ebola Cases & Patient Update: Second US Healthcare Worker Diagnosed with Ebola
Another medical worker from Texas Health Presbyterian hospital who cared for Thomas Duncan has been diagnosed with Ebola.
Out of the 75 healthcare workers currently being monitored after coming in contact with Duncan, a second has tested positive for Ebola. Last week, nurse Nina Pham also tested positive for Ebola after taking care of the Liberian man.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Dallas healthcare worker with Ebola took a flight from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday, just one day before she reported symptoms, reports CNN. As a result, the CDC said it plans to interview all 132 passengers that were on the flight.
Officials said that the worker, who has not been identified, was moved into isolation at the Texas hospital within 90 minutes after she reported a fever on Tuesday.
"Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored," the health department said.
The latest Ebola case at the Texas hospital has sparked more scrutiny from critics who question whether the hospital is capable of treating Ebola patients and preventing the virus from spreading.
The hospital also faces criticism for originally sending Duncan home when he first tried to admit himself into the hospital after showing signs of Ebola.
Duncan contracted the virus while he was in his home in Liberia. He then traveled to the United States on Sept. 19 and arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20.
A few days a later, he began showing signs of the disease and went to the hospital on Sept. 25. Although he told hospital workers that he recently traveled from Liberia, where the disease is running rampant, he was sent home. It wasn't until he returned to the hospital on Sept. 28 via ambulance that he was finally tested and diagnosed with the disease.
Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died last Wednesday in the hospital.
Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer of Texas Health Resources, admitted Wednesday that the medical staff at the hospital "may have done some things differently with the benefit of what we know today," adding, "no one wants to get this right more than our hospital."
Speaking in hindsight, one official said that Duncan should have been transferred immediately to one of the few hospitals in the U.S. with biocontainment units to control highly infectious diseases.
"If we knew then what we know now about this hospital's ability to safely care for these patients, then we would have transferred him to Emory or Nebraska," the official told CNN.
"I think there are hospitals that are more than ready, but I think there are some that are not."
On Tuesday, National Nurses United stated that the hospital's "guidelines were constantly changing" and that "there were no protocols" on how nurses should deal with the deadly virus.
"The protocols that should have been in place in Dallas were not in place, and that those protocols are not in place anywhere in the United States as far as we can tell," NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro said. "We're deeply alarmed."
Dr. Tom Frieden of the CDC announced that the CDC is establishing an Ebola response team so that whenever there's a confirmed case anywhere in the country, "we will put a team on the ground within hours," reports NBC News.
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