Second health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital
(CNN) -- A second health care worker who cared for an Ebola patient at a Dallas hospital has contracted the virus herself.
The worker, a woman who lives alone, was quickly moved into isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, authorities said Wednesday.
The news cast further doubt on the hospital's ability to handle Ebola and protect employees. It's the same hospital that initially sent Thomas Eric Duncan home, even though he had a fever and had traveled from West Africa. By the time he returned to the hospital, his symptoms had worsened. He died while being treated by medical staff, including the two women who have now contracted the disease.
"I don't think we have a systematic institutional problem," Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer of Texas Health Resources, told reporters Wednesday, facing questions about the hospital's actions.
Medical staff "may have done some things differently with the benefit of what we know today," he said, adding, "no one wants to get this right more than our hospital."
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Seventy-five health care workers in Dallas are being monitored for any Ebola symptoms, Varga said.
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The second worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated, health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said.
The virus is not contagious before there are symptoms [Are we supposed to take that at face value? - B4L].
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The second time
The latest infection marks the second-ever transmission of Ebola in the United States. Both stemmed from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
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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.
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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.
"There are a number of countries that have capacity that have not yet stepped up," he said. "Those that have stepped up, all of us, are going to have to do more."
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http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health...bola-outbreak/
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Originally Posted by presence
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