A second healthcare worker at Texas Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for now deceased Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola, according to preliminary tests performed overnight by the Texas Department of State Health Services’ laboratory.
The patient was isolated after an initial report of a fever and remains so now. Confirmation testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s laboratory is being done. The health care worker was being monitored for fever and symptoms.
CDC has interviewed the patient to identify any contacts or potential exposures in the community.
Yesterday the CDC announced it is sending an additional team to Dallas, including experts with extensive infection control experience in an Ebola setting.
In addition, two infection control nurses from Emory University hospital who have experience treating Ebola patients without infecting health-care workers are joining the response at the Dallas hospital to provide peer-to-peer training and support.
Based on the lessons learned at the Dallas hospital, CDC has now established a national Response Team that could be on the ground within a few hours at any hospital with a confirmed patient with Ebola. The CDC Response Team would provide in-person, expert support and training on infection control, healthcare safety, medical treatment, contact tracing, waste and decontamination, public education and other issues.
The CDC Response Team would help ensure that clinicians, and state and local public health practitioners, consistently follow strict standards of protocol to ensure safety of the patient and healthcare workers.
CDC tests results will be shared when confirmatory tests are done, following appropriate patient notification.
Read more on this breaking story:
- Second health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital (CNN)
- CDC to deploy Ebola response team to help hospitals (CIDRAP)
- More Ebola victims in Texas are ‘a very real possibility’ (Washington Post)
- Another Texas healthcare worker tests positive for Ebola (Reuters)
