EbolaCDC chief: U.S. “rethinking” Ebola strategy after Dallas nurse’s infection
U.S. federal health officials have urged hospitals to “think Ebola” as officials in Texas are anxiously trying to identify all staff involved in the care of America’s patient zero following the news that a nurse — Nina Pham, 26 — who was involved in his care is the first person to contract the disease in the United States. “We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection and control because even a single infection is unacceptable,” Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said on Monday. CDC officials are now watching the Dallas hospital personnel as they put on and take off their protective garb, retraining the staff and evaluating the type of protective equipment being used. The CDC officials were considering using cleaning products that kill the virus to spray down workers who come out of the isolation unit where the nurse is being treated. CDC will update its infection control guidance document, mostly likely next week. The agency’s guidance is just that – a guidance – since the agency does not have the authority to compel hospitals to follow its recommended procedures.
U.S. federal health officials have urged hospitals to “think Ebola” as officials in Texas are anxiously trying to identify all staff involved in the care of America’s patient zero following the news that a nurse — Nina Pham, 26 — who was involved in his care is the first person to contract the disease in the United States.
“We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection and control because even a single infection is unacceptable,” Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a press conference on Monday.
On Sunday, four days after Thomas Eric Duncan died in an isolation unit at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas, the CDC confirmed a female nurse had contracted Ebola, in the first case of transmission of the virus in the United States and the second outside Africa.
Frieden said the nurse is in stable condition.
CDC officials are now watching the Dallas hospital personnel as they put on and take off their protective garb, retraining the staff and evaluating the type of protective equipment being used. The CDC officials were considering using cleaning products that kill the virus to spray down workers who come out of the isolation unit where the nurse is being treated.
“There are a series of things that are already implemented in the past 24 hours,” Frieden said. “If this one individual was infected, and we don’t know how within the isolation unit, then it is possible that other individuals could have been infected as well.”
Frieden said hospitals must be prepared to diagnose a patient for the disease, which has killed more than 4,000 across West Africa since the current outbreak began in March. He said this begins with asking the person if they have travelled to Africa’s three most affected countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea — in the past twenty-one days.
“If this one individual was infected and we don’t know how, within the isolation unit, then it is possible that other individuals could have been infected as well,” Frieden said. “So we consider them to potentially be at risk.”
