Second case of Ebola reported in the US
“Think Ebola” is the new protocol of hospitals nationwide.
Federal officials have urged hospital staff to keep watch for symptoms of the viral disease, which has spread to the US last month with travelers hailing from West African nations.
Authorities are still investigating the case of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola on Oct. 8, as well as the hospital workers who were caring for him. Over the weekend, a nurse who had cared for Duncan at the Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas tested positive for the virus.
Tom Friedan, Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), admitted that he “would not be surprised if another hospital worker who cared for Duncan becomes ill.” Ebola patients, he said, become “more contagious” as the disease progresses.
The CDC is now monitoring all hospital workers who treated or even went near Duncan, who had arrived in the US from Liberia—one of the three West African countries most affected by the epidemic—in late September.
It is not yet known exactly how Nina Pham, the 26-year-old nurse identified who tested positive for the disease, contracted it after treating Duncan. She had been wearing protective gear at all times inside the patient’s room, and officials could not point to any breach in CDC-mandated anti-infection protocol. The nurse is currently in stable condition at the Dallas hospital.
“We have to consider the possibility that there are other cases,” said Friedan. “Unfortunately, I would not be surprised. Stopping Ebola is hard.”
Health officials are also tracking Pham’s contacts since her symptoms appeared on Friday, Oct. 10, including family and friends. Freiden said there appeared to be only one person in contact with Pham once she became infectious, who is currently being isolated.
Frieden noted that Pham was following CDC guidelines in her procedure, wearing a gown, gloves, mask and face shield at all times while in contact with the patient. “We have to rethink the way that we address Ebola infection control,” he said.
The case has raised concerns about hospital protocol for infectious, potentially fatal diseases. Officials have assured that Ebola will be contained and should be able to be treated at any US hospital.
Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases agreed on ABC’s Good Morning America that patients showing symptoms should be sent straight to highly specialized “containment” hospitals.
“It should be seriously considered,” Fauci said, also pointing out that high-risk procedures should not be conducted if the patient has deteriorated to the point where he or she cannot be saved.
“We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility,” said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The CDC will be investigating a number of things regarding the contamination issue, from emergency room precautions to how workers took off their protective gear. Officials will also look at procedures like dialysis and intubation—the insertion of a breathing tube in a patient’s airway—which both have the potential to spread a virus.
“Every emergency room needs to be prepared to isolate and take infection control precautions, because no one can control where an Ebola patient might show up,” said Dr. Dennis Maki, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“However, only large hospitals such as those affiliated with major universities truly have the equipment and manpower to deal with Ebola correctly,” Maki added.
The incident also proves how little experts know about the virus, especially how it puts health care workers at the greatest risk, even when wearing protective gear. More than 370 health care workers in West Africa, for instance, have fallen ill or died since the epidemic began earlier this year.
On Sunday, Dallas police thoroughly cleaned and barred entry to Pham’s apartment complex and informed neighbors of the situation, assuring them that risk was only confined to those who have had close contact with the two Ebola patients, Pham and Duncan. “Close contact” implies direct interaction with a symptomatic person’s bodily fluids (ex. blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva, or semen), which must have an entry point for contamination, such as a cut or scrape.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins also confirmed that Pham’s dog, a King Charles spaniel, is in the apartment and being taken care of by authorities while its owner is being treated.
“If that dog has to be the boy in a plastic bubble…We are going to take good care of that dog,” Jenkins said, emphasizing that the dog would not be euthanized.
(With reports from Associated Press and ABC7)
