The patient was not identified, but he or she provided care to Thomas Duncan, the Liberian national who died at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas a week ago.
This is the third case diagnosed in the U.S., including Duncan, who got infected in Liberia before traveling to Dallas. It is the second case transmitted in the U.S. and only the third outside West Africa. A Spanish nursing assistant also became infected in a Madrid hospital.
No one in the wider community — in Texas or Spain — has become sick, although people close to the health workers are being checked and in some cases isolated.
The Ebola test on the latest patient was done locally, and the CDC is running confirmation tests.
“As we have said before, because of our ongoing investigation, it is not unexpected that there would be additional exposures,” a CDC statement said. “An additional health care 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 has begun an investigation into how the deadly virus spread in Texas Presbyterian Hospital, which had isolated Duncan and was treating him in an ICU with the health personnel in protective gear. That gear can be hard to put on and take off, which is one possible transmission route. The CDC has also said the hospital’s decision to use a ventilator and dialysis on Duncan in a futile effort to save the dying man may have heightened the risk to the health workers, although it has not concluded its probe into what it has labeled a breach of protocol in that hospital.
The CDC has sent extra personnel, including a special medical team with extensive training to the Dallas hospital to supervise care and help prevent additional spread to health workers. Several dozen staff at that hospital are being monitored for early signs of the disease. People are not contagious if they do not have symptoms.
No one in the wider Dallas community has fallen ill, and the risk is dropping — but not yet erased — for the 48 people including family members who had direct or indirect contact with Duncan, the CDC says. They have to be monitored for 21 days, and some of the highest risk individuals are in isolation until then.
The CDC has sent health workers to Dallas who have had experience in Africa, including controlling outbreaks that were more quickly contained than the one currently ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Two nurses from Emory University Hospital who have experience treating Ebola patients are joining the Dallas team, partly to train and guide other health care workers in protective practices.
The CDC is also creating a dedicated team that could go to any U.S. hopsital if another Ebola patient turns up.
The agency has been running training programs for hospitals and health care workers, which are being stepped up, but CDC Director Tom Frieden said this week he regretted not sending rapid response support to Dallas earlier.
Public health and border control workers are also stepping up surveillance at U.S. airports.
My question, is how are the procedures and protocols being used in dialysis, intubation and more? Who is training them? Are they listening. This deadly disease will continue to spread into the general population. There is a huge African community already in Texas and we as Nigerians are educating them from here.
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ARTICLE
http://www.nta.ng/what-the-united-states-of-america-can-learn-from-nigeria-on-ebola-in-the-usa/
