Second Texas Health Care Worker Contracts Ebola
DALLAS (AP) — A second health care worker at a Dallas hospital who provided care for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. has tested positive for the disease, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday.
The department said in the statement emailed early Wednesday and posted on its website that the worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediate isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
The department said a preliminary Ebola test was conducted late Tuesday at a state public health laboratory in Austin, Texas, and that confirmatory testing would be conducted at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The statement also said the health care worker, who wasn’t identified, was interviewed to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures and that others will be monitored. It added that the type of monitoring will depend on the nature of their interactions with the health care worker and the potential of exposure to the virus.
Health officials said the worker was among those who took care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was diagnosed with Ebola. Duncan died last week.
Officials have said they don’t know how the first health worker - nurse Nina Pham - became infected.
Pham, 26, became the first person to contract the disease on U.S. soil as she cared for Duncan. The nurse released a statement Tuesday through Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital saying she was "doing well," and the hospital listed her in good condition. She has received a plasma transfusion from a doctor who beat the virus and the hospital CEO said medical staff members remain hopeful about her condition.
Pham was in Duncan's room often, from the day he was placed in intensive care until the day before he died.
The second case pointed to lapses beyond how one individual may have donned and removed personal protective garb.
A national nurses' union says nurses at the hospital worked for days without proper protective gear and with only loose guidelines on how to prevent the spread of the virus.
National Nurses United executive director RoseAnn DeMoro would no say how many had spoken out of concern for their jobs.
She said the nurses allege specimens from the victim were sent through pneumatic tubes, potentially contaminating the entire lab specimen delivery system.
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