Wednesday, October 15, 2014

2nd Healthcare Worker Has Ebola


NEW YORK (AP) -- Health officials are alerting airline passengers who were on the same flight as a Texas nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola the next day.



DALLAS — 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.

 A total of 76 people at the hospital might have been exposed to Duncan, and all of them are being monitored for fever and other symptoms daily, Frieden said. Nurse Nina Pham contracted the virus while caring for Duncan. Health officials are monitoring 48 others who had some contact with Duncan before he was admitted the hospital where he died.

In a conference call late Tuesday, the nation's largest nurses' union described how the patient, Duncan, was left in an open area of the emergency room for hours. National Nurses United, citing unnamed nurses, said staff treated Duncan for days without the correct protective gear, that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling and safety protocols constantly changed.

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, has acknowledged that the government wasn't aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected patient to a nurse at a Dallas hospital.

"We could've sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from day one about exactly how this should be managed," he said Tuesday.

Entire long article at
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/ap/texas-dept-nd-person-tests-positive-for-ebola/article_f3f2876e-5457-11e4-b593-abd51e59f53f.html

Last week, Dr. Tony Reed, medical director of AtlantiCare's Quality and Analytics, said that AtlantiCare facilities have a process in place to deal with infectious diseases, and Tornetta said the hospital system has an established policy for identifying and treating them.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/officials-no-ebola-patient-at-atlanticare-hospital/article_814b083a-5466-11e4-82f4-fbf536e906b6.html

 "AtlantiCare has been preparing since August based on the outbreak in West Africa," said Fox.

Hospital officials put together educational material for the staff, placed personal protective equipment throughout the facility, as well as participating in a number of calls with the New Jersey Department of Health, the CDC and Department of Health & Human Services at the federal level.
http://www.nbc40.net/story/26787688/state-and-hospital-officials-are-ramping-up-ebola-preparedness

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great! The 2nd healthcare worker was roaming around Cleveland before getting on that plane back to Dallas. How many more workers got infected from contaminated waste piled to the ceiling for days? How many more have been flying all over the country?
There is something very wrong about how the government is handling this threat to our country.

Anonymous said...

I read she had a fever on the plane. The plane then went on to Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale with new passengers.
A catastrophe in slow motion.