An unnamed female healthcare worker, who treated the first U.S. case of Ebola, has contracted the disease. Health officials said the infected worker contacted with Thomas Eric Duncan, who died at a Dallas hospital last week after being exposed to Ebola in Liberia and then traveled to the U.S.
This is what the U.S. authorities feared, as the first case of Ebola to be transmitted inside the United States and it appears to occurred despite all the precautions put in place. CCTV America’s Nathan King reports.
What is the most alarming about this case is that health officials said the now-infected nurse was wearing full protective gear when she treated Thomas Eric Duncan. She was also not one of the 48 people who were being monitored after coming into contact with him.
The nurse first treated Duncan on his second visit to the hospital when he was admitted on September 28th. Duncan was confirmed to have Ebola two days later. Health officials didn’t say what exactly happened but said there was a breach in the strict protocols in place when treating patients with Ebola and that other healthcare workers will now be checked.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the nurse was self-monitoring her temperature at home for two days. In a statement, the hospital says she reported a fever to the hospital within 90 minutes and was isolated immediately upon arriving there.
Ebola can only be spread once carriers start to show symptoms. It seems the nurse came into contact with one other person during that period. That person has now been isolated.
This is worrying everyone from local Texas health officials to the president of the United States. Obama called his top health care official to make sure the investigation into what happened is conducted with the utmost urgency.
Testing shows this infected healthcare worker has lower levels of the Ebola virus in her suggesting it will be easier to treat.
However, this apparent breach is a further stain on the reputation of the Dallas Presbyterian hospital who was already under pressure for breaking CDC guidelines and not admitting Thomas Eric Duncan when he first presented himself on September 25th despite the fact he had a fever and told them that he had just arrived from West Africa.