10/15/14, "2nd health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital," CNN, Holly Yan
"A second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola, health officials said Wednesday -- casting further doubt on the hospital's ability to handle Ebola and protect employees.
The worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated, health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said.
The preliminary Ebola
test was done late Tuesday at the state public health laboratory in
Austin, and the results came back around midnight. A second test will be
conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta....
But the pool of contacts could be small, since Ebola can only be transmitted when an
infected person shows symptoms. Less than a day passed between the onset
of the worker's symptoms and isolation at the hospital.
Official: Duncan should have been moved
An official close to the
situation says that in hindsight, Duncan should have been transferred
immediately to either Emory University Hospital in Atlanta or Nebraska
Medical Center in Omaha.
Those hospitals are among
only four in the country that have biocontainment units and have been
preparing for years to treat a highly infectious disease like Ebola.
"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 Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
"I think there are hospitals that are more than ready, but I think there are some that are not."
The second time
The latest infection
marks the second-ever transmission of Ebola in the United States. Both
stemmed from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Late last week, nurse
Tina Pham tested positive for Ebola. She also took care of Duncan, the
first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Duncan
died last week.
On Tuesday, Pham said she was doing well.
"I am blessed by the
support of family and friends, and am blessed to be cared for by the
best team of doctors and nurses in the world," she said.
Troubling allegations
Also Tuesday, National Nurses United made troubling allegations
about the hospital, claiming "guidelines were constantly changing" and
"there were no protocols" about how to 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."
Nurses were told to wrap
their necks with medical tape when equipment left their necks exposed;
they felt unsupported and unprepared, and they received no hands-on
training, union co-president Deborah Burger said.
A Texas Health
Presbyterian spokesman did not respond to the specific allegations, but
said patient and employee safety is the hospital's top priority.
Global epidemic
While the Texas hospital deals with its third Ebola patient, the situation in West Africa is getting increasingly dire.
More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola this year in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
And it could be up to
10,000 new Ebola cases per week in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone by
the end of this year as the outbreak spreads, the World Health
Organization warned Tuesday.
U.S. President Barack
Obama says he'll reach out directly to heads of state
to encourage other
countries to do more to fight back.
that have not yet stepped up,"
he said.
"Those that have stepped up, all of us, are going to have to do more.""
==============================
Comment: Thanks again to the entire Bush family and the "Republican" Establishment for destroying this country. The Republican Party was the only vehicle on earth that could've stopped the radical left. Not only didn't the Bush crowd stop the left, it joined them.
No comments:
Post a Comment