Second Dallas Nurse Contracts Ebola

Texas health authorities report a second health care worker who treated Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola

By Christine Gorman

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Texas Health authorities reported early this morning that a second Dallas nurse from Texas Presbyterian Hospital has tested postive for Ebola. The woman presumably was infected while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to becme sick with Ebola while in the United States. Confirmation tests are being performed at the Centers for Disease Control.

The news further highlights how little margin there is for error when treating an Ebola patient and strongly suggests that health care workers were not adequately trained to handle Ebola cases at the hospital. Separately, a group of nurses from Texas Presbyterian spoke with reporters anonymously on a teleconference alleging a "confused and chaotic" response at the hospital when Duncan first arrived.

On Tuesday the CDC announced that it has created an Ebola response team that will fly to any hospital with a confirmed Ebola case within hours. “I wish we had put a team like this on the ground the day the first patient was diagnosed,” director Thomas Frieden conceded in a news conference announcing the move.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization predicted that the number of new Ebola cases in west Africa in the next two months could rise to 10,000 cases per week.

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