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Health care workers monitored after Ebola case | Nation & World | The Seattle Times
By NOMAAN MERCHANT
Associated Press
DALLAS
Health officials are intensifying the monitoring
of hospital workers who provided care to the
first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the
U.S. after one of them was infected with the
virus despite wearing protective gear.
Tests confirmed the first known case of Ebola
transmitted in the nation, raising questions
about assurances by health officials here that
the disease will be contained and any American
hospital should be able to treat it.
Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday
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Health care workers monitored after Ebola case | Nation & World | The Seattle Times
the hospital.
Among the things the CDC will investigate is how the workers took off protective gear, because
removing it incorrectly can lead to contamination. Investigators will also look at dialysis and
intubation -- the insertion of a breathing tube in a patient's airway. Both procedures have the
potential to spread the virus.
Fauci said on CNN that the CDC is examining procedures like dialysis to see if they "heighten
greatly" the risk of health care workers contracting Ebola. He suggested that in cases where the
patient has deteriorated to the point where he or she cannot be saved, such high-risk procedures
should not be done.
Every emergency room needs to be prepared to isolate and take infection control precautions,
because no one can control where an Ebola patient might show up, said Dr. Dennis Maki,
University of Wisconsin-Madison infectious disease specialist and former head of hospital
infection control.
However, only large hospitals such as those affiliated with major universities truly have the
equipment and manpower to deal with Ebola correctly, Maki said.
Health care workers treating Ebola patients are among the most vulnerable, even if wearing
protective gear.
Nurses at many hospitals "are alarmed at the inadequate preparation they see," says a statement
from Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the union National Nurses United.
A Spanish nurse assistant who helped care for two patients is the first health care worker infected
outside West Africa in this outbreak. More than 370 health care workers in West Africa have fallen
ill or died since the epidemic began earlier this year.
Officials said they were told there may be a pet in the Texas health care worker's apartment, and
have a plan to care for the animal. They do not believe the pet has signs of having contracted
Ebola. A dog belonging to the Spanish nurse was euthanized, drawing thousands of complaints.
Ebola spreads through close contact with a symptomatic person's bodily fluids, such as blood,
sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen. Those fluids must have an entry point, such as a cut or
scrape or someone touching the nose, mouth or eyes with contaminated hands, or being splashed.
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