Second health worker in Texas tests positive for Ebola

WASHINGTON, DC, USA (UPDATED) – A second Texas health care worker has tested positive for Ebola after treating a Liberian patient who died of the virus in Dallas, officials said Wednesday, October 15.

The woman’s identity was not revealed by health authorities, who said she came down with a fever on Tuesday and was isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

A test to confirm the presence of the virus is being done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This is a heroic person, a person who has dedicated her life to helping others,” said Judge Clay Jenkins.

The case follows the diagnosis Sunday of nurse Nina Pham, who had been closely involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan between September 28 and October 8, when he died.

The Texas Department of State Health Services is monitoring 75 more health care workers who may have become infected while caring for Duncan or handling his blood specimens at the Dallas hospital.

“It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better,” Mayor Mike Rawlings told a press conference.

The latest patient lived alone and had no pets. People in the apartment complex where she lived were notified that one of their neighbors had come down with Ebola, Rawlings said.

Ebola spreads

Duncan is thought to have contracted the disease while still in Liberia. He was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States — and the first case diagnosed outside Africa.

Pham was the first person to contract Ebola in the United States. She was described as being in “good condition” by the hospital on Tuesday, and she released a statement saying she was “doing well.”

The world’s largest outbreak of Ebola is spreading quickly across West Africa and has killed more than 4,400 people since the beginning of this year.

The virus is spread through close contact the bodily fluids of an infected person.

The World Health Organization said the death rate in the Africa outbreak has climbed to 70 percent.

Several Americans have contracted Ebola in Africa and have been airlifted back to the United States for treatment, though they were cared for at special biocontainment units in Nebraska and Georgia. No health care workers were contaminated with Ebola in the course of their care.

Nurses have protested the CDC’s assertion that a breach of protocol was to blame for the infection of Pham.

Health authorities have been unable to identify a specific problem with the way Pham put on or removed her protective gear, which included a face shield, mask, glove and gown, but Pham is assisting the CDC investigation.

‘Not acceptable’

“What happened there, regardless of the reason, is not acceptable,” said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci said health authorities are taking series of new measures to boost hospitals’ preparedness, including sending to Dallas experts who have managed to control Ebola outbreaks in Africa over the past two decades.

The CDC said it is improving procedures to protect health care workers at the Dallas hospital, and providing health workers there and elsewhere with opportunities for more training.

“A lot is being said about what may or may not have occurred to cause some of our colleagues to contract this disease, but it’s clear there was an exposure somewhere, sometime in their treatment of Mr Duncan,” said Texas Health chief medical officer Dan Varga.

“No one wants to get this right more than our hospital, the first to diagnose and treat this insidious disease that’s now attacked two of our own.” – Rappler.com