2nd Ebola case in Texas caused by breach in protocol, CDC chief says

Los Angeles Times ^ | 10/12/2014 | KURTIS LEE, MICHAEL A. MEMOLI

[SeekAndFind]

A federal health official said Sunday there was “clearly” a breach in protocol that led to the infection of a Dallas healthcare worker with Ebola in what is thought to be the first U.S. transmission of the deadly virus.

“We’re deeply concerned about this new development,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I think the fact that we don’t know of a breach in protocol is concerning, because clearly there was a breach in protocol. We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients.”

President Obama was briefed Sunday on the diagnosis by Lisa Monaco, his homeland security and counterterrorism advisor. He later spoke with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, in which he directed that the CDC’s investigation of the apparent protocol breach move “as expeditiously as possible.”

The White House said Obama also ordered federal health authorities to take further steps to ensure that healthcare facilities nationwide are prepared to follow infection control protocols in the event they should confront a possible Ebola case.

Frieden said the worker had been monitoring herself and was promptly isolated when she developed symptoms.

[JeepRubicon]

They will go all-out to save any patient with Ebola, including intubation and dialysis, as long as possible with this

I hate to say it, but not anymore they aren't, the protocols are going to change. Basically, very little contact, you live or die on your own, that's all that can really be done here, anymore and you're risking all of the equipment being ruined forever, and complete facility shutdown, "toots"

[Mrs. P]

What are you basing this on? You sound like a troll to me.

[Madam Theophilus]

Yes, it is the same situation of a medical staff member becoming infected with Ebola after caring for an Ebola patient.

[miserare]

I wondered about the equipment, too. Will they have to destroy the dialysis machine they used on Duncan?

Those things don’t come cheap.

And why did they put an almost dead man on dialysis?

That hospital...its CEOs and CFOs...are in deep doo-doo!