Second Texas Hospital Worker Tests Positive for Ebola
Just days after it was confirmed that a 26-year-old nurse at a Dallas hospital had been infected with Ebola after caring for patient Thomas Eric Duncan, another health care worker at the same hospital has tested positive.
A microscopic view of the infectious disease. Shutterstock
Just days after it was confirmed that a 26-year-old nurse at a Dallas hospital had been infected with Ebola after caring for patient Thomas Eric Duncan, another health care worker at the same hospital has tested positive. The news Wednesday comes after a national nurses union disparaged hospitals for “dropping the ball on safety for nurses caring for Ebola patients” at a news conference Tuesday evening.
The New York Times: ….a second worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has tested positive for the virus in preliminary tests, state and federal health officials said Wednesday morning.The hospital worker, who has not been identified, was part of the medical team that cared for the Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan after he was admitted to the hospital on Sept. 28 and put in isolation. The worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at Presbyterian hospital.
Preliminary tests were performed late Tuesday by the laboratory for the Texas Department of State Health Services in Austin, and the positive results were received at about midnight. Additional tests to confirm the positive reading were underway by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Officials interviewed the worker to identify anyone else who might have been exposed, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement, but it was unclear whether any others were being monitored.
A second case of Ebola among the nearly 100 doctors, nurses and assistants who treated Mr. Duncan for 10 days at Presbyterian was not unexpected. For days, federal health officials have warned that, in addition to a nurse who was confirmed to have Ebola on Sunday, other cases were likely.
—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata
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