Days after Nina Pham was diagnosed with Ebola, a second healthcare worker who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive as well. This was announced the day after a nurses union claimed there weren’t proper protocols in dealing with with deadly virus.
Pham received a potentially life saving blood transfusion from Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly. She is reported to be doing better. The antibodies in Brantly’s blood should help Pham fight the virus.
Duncan was left in an area that was not quarantined for several hours and his lab tests were sent in an manner which was not secure, National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro stated. The union also charged that the necks of healthcare workers were left exposed while they were treating Duncan, hazardous waste piled up, and the nurses had no hands on training to deal with this crisis. Duncan’s blood work also went through a tube system which may have exposed others.
“The protocols that should have been in place in Dallas were not in place, and that those protocols are not in place anywhere in the United States as far as we can tell,” National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro said Tuesday night. “We’re deeply alarmed.”
Thomas Frieden, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, admitted fault with not sending a larger team to Dallas when Duncan was first diagnosed. Previously Frieden said Ebola could be treated in any hospital room. With two more people diagnosed and an alarmed public, he regrets not taking a more aggressive approach.
“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.”
The World Health Organization projects there will be 10,000 new cases in West Africa diagnosed every week. The death rate of the killer virus is at 70% and has claimed over 4,500 lives in West Africa.
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