DALLAS—Fears of the Ebola virus deepened Wednesday with word that a second Dallas nurse caught the disease from a patient and flew across the Midwest aboard an airliner the day before she was diagnosed. President Barack Obama canceled a campaign trip to address the outbreak.
It’s not clear how the nurse contracted the virus, though the second case among health workerspointed to lapses beyond how one individual may have donned and removed protective garb.
Authorities declined to say what type of care the nurse provided to Thomas Eric Duncan, who was diagnosed with Ebola after coming to the U.S. from Liberia. He died Oct. 8.
Infected Ebola patients are not considered contagious until they have symptoms. The airplane crew said the woman had no symptoms during Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth on Monday. She flew from Dallas to Cleveland on Oct. 10.
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The CDC said it is alerting the 132 passengers who were on the return flight “because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning.”Officials are asking them to call the health agency so they can be monitored.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the additional infection is “a serious concern.”
“What happened there (in Dallas), regardless of the reason, is not acceptable. It shouldn’t have happened,” Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH, said Wednesday on MSNBC.
The nurse was monitoring herself for symptoms, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. She reported a fever Tuesday and was in isolation within 90 minutes, Jenkins said.
“We are looking at every element of our personal protection equipment and infection control in the hospital,” said Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources, which operates Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, has acknowledged that the government was not 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.
Both nurses were being cared for at the same hospital where they work. The second nurse was to be transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
The second case may help health officials determine where the infection-control breach is occurring and make practices safer for health workers everywhere. For example, if both healthworkers were involved in drawing Duncan’s blood, placing an intravenous line or suctioning mucus when Duncan was on a breathing machine, that would be recognized as a particularly high-risk activity. It might also reveal which body fluids pose the greatest risk.
Emergency responders in hazardous-materials suits began decontamination work before dawn Wednesday at the Dallas apartment complex where the second nurse lives. Officials said she lives alone with no pets.
Notices handed out to neighbors advise that “a health care worker who lives in your area has tested positive for Ebola.”
Ryan Fus, 24, who lives in the same building as the blocked-off apartment, said police knocked on his door before 6 a.m. to notify him and make sure he was all right.
“It’s a little scary. It’s a little shocking that it’s right near me,” he said.
Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed said a hazardous-materials crew has finished cleaning common areas of the complex and that the state was sending a crew to clean the actual apartment.
Frieden outlined new steps this week designed to stop the spread of the disease, including the creation of an Ebola response team, increased training for health care workers nationwide and changes at the Texas hospital to minimize the risk of more infections.
The new case lends support to nurses’ claims this week that they have inadequate training and in some cases, protective gear, to take care of Ebola patients.
“They’re not prepared” for what they are being asked to do, said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, a union with 185,000 members.
Based on statements from nurses it did not identify, the union described how Duncan was left in an open area of the emergency room for hours. It 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.
DeMoro refused to say how many nurses made the statement about Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, but insisted they were in a position to know what happened.
Officials say at least 76 people at the hospital might have been exposed, and all are being monitored for fever and other symptoms.
Nurse Nina Pham, 26, contracted the virus while caring for Duncan. Health officials are monitoring 48 others who had some contact with Duncan before he was admitted to the hospital where he died.
Pham became the first person to contract the disease on U.S. soil. She released a statement Tuesday through the hospital saying she was “doing well.” The hospital listed her in good condition. She has received a plasma transfusion from a doctor who recovered from the virus.
From The Associated Press. AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione and AP reporters Martha Mendoza, Maud Beelman, Matt Sedensky and Alex Sanz in Dallas contributed to this report.
