Posted on 10/13/2014 5:15:47 AM PDT by xzins
"We are deeply concerned about this new development," Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Sunday, after a Dallas nurse who treated a Liberian Ebola patient also tested positive for the deadly virus -- the first person-to-person transmission in the U.S.
"We now consider all of the health care workers who cared for the index patient (Thomas Eric Duncan) potentially to have been exposed, and we'll be rostering those individuals and determining which require active follow-up in addition to their self-monitoring," Frieden told CBS's "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer.
"We know from many years of experience that it's possible to care for patients with Ebola safely without risk to health care workers," Frieden added. "But we also know that ...even a single breach can result in contamination.
"And one of the areas that we look at closely are things like how you take off the gear that might be infected or contaminated. Another that we'll be looking at closely in-- in the investigation is the-- the interventions that were done to try desperately to keep the index patient alive. This included dialysis and intubation. These are two procedures which can result in the spread of infectious material."
The nurse who contracted Ebola after treating Duncan did wear full protective gear.
"I think the fact that we don't know of a breach in protocol is concerning because, clearly, there was a breach in protocol. We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients," Frieden said.
He listed for "four things" that CDC is doing now:
"First, is to make sure that that individual (the nurse) is cared for safely and effectively. Second, we're identifying that individual's contacts...Third, we now consider all of the health care workers who cared for the index patient potentially to have been exposed and we'll be rostering those individuals and determining which require active follow-up in addition to their self-monitoring. And, fourth, we'll conduct a full investigation of what happens before health workers go in, what happens when they're there, and what happens in ... taking off their protective equipment, because infections only occur when there's a breach in protocol."
Frieden said CDC is now monitoring "all individuals" (he couldn't give an exact number) who cared for Duncan in Dallas, "and we'll be determining how many of those may potentially have had contact that would have resulted in a breakdown of protocol and possible contamination."
Meanwhile, Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas has shut down its emergency room until further notice, CBS reported, because of staffing limitations. Many staffers are being watched for signs of Ebola. This means ambulances will take patients to other emergency departments.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert with the National Institutes of Health, said U.S. hospitals "need to reemphasize the importance" of the protocols involved in removing their protective gear.
Although such breaches are "very, very rare," it can happen when a health care worker is "fatigued, they've been working for a long time, and when they take it off, they do something inadvertent, like brushing their face or something like that. I don't know how it happened. The CDC's investigating it, but that's very likely what happened. An inadvertent breach."
Fauci said he's "still quite confident" that there won't be a public outbreak of Ebola in this country -- "because of our ability to reach out, do the contact tracing, and isolate people who are infected."
He also said shutting down flights from West Africa "would be counterproductive."
"We can understand how people might come to that conclusion," Fauci told NBC's Chuck Todd. "But when you look at what happens when you isolate a country, you diminish greatly their ability to handle their own epidemic. If that happens, it very likely will spread to other African countries.
"And the best way to protect Americans is to completely suppress the epidemic in West Africa. If we do that, we wouldn't be talking about this today. So to isolate them, maybe with good intentions, actually can be counterproductive and make things worse."
for later reading
Ain’t that the truth and they are wiping down railings and spraying outside of her apartment.What about people on planes.This is nuts.
I use PPE regularly myself, though not full level A. And it’s hard enough to get anything done wearing this lower level.
One thing most people don’t realize is how tiring it is to work in full PPE. When wearing tyvek, gloves and full face respirators, I always though one hour was about as tiring as doing the same work without the equipment. Of course, tired people are a lot more likely to make mistakes.
Any work you do is also done much more slowly. Add in the time donning and doffing PPE and production rate drops off the charts. I’ve generally found you can get at most 33% to 50% of the work done in eight hours when wearing full PPE.
Which means we’re going to need 2x to 3x the number of trained personnel to deal with each Ebola case. The problem being that there aren’t all that many of these people, and some percentage of them will, somewhat understandably, chicken out.
Great point.
I have worked some with a company that makes an advanced fogging system. It produces a “dry” disinfecting fog at tremendously high concentrations. I would imagine it would be highly effective for people to doff their gear in such a chamber.
The fog concentration is so high they’d have to use a supplied air respirator, though, which would complicate things, I would assume.
The same process would I believe be highly effective for disinfecting spaces, not as a replacement for cleaning, but as separate treatments before standard cleaning and disinfection.
“”We know from many years of experience that it’s possible to care for patients with Ebola safely without risk to health care workers,” Frieden added.”
I guess that’s why so many nurses over in Africa have gotten sick. Seems it is NOT as easy as the CDC pretends.
LOL!
you got their explanation down pat.
They have no clue what went wrong, but was sure it was the poor nurse’s fault.
Yet are sure it will not happen again, even though they don’t know what it was that will not happen again.
Can this government sound any more incompetent?
Outstanding links! Thanks!
“...until there is a vaccine.”
I wouldn’t trust a vaccine from these guys? Would you?
Shutting down the fights should have happened a month ago as many have demanded. What we really need is high intensity isolation with the highest level of protection for providers. The people in close contact with victims (ie those who had lived with/cared for the victims) need to be placed in isolation facilities for 3 weeks.
The Spanish and US Ebola victims were both health care workers. If absolute protection cannot be given to providers, they will refuse to take care of these cases.
“We’re going to get some our troops infected while we’re in Africa. A light infantry, air assault division is not designed to fight epidemic.”
I have no clue why they were sent there. I am so sad for each one of them. Using our military for non-military uses yet again - but this time putting them at great risk.
This really pisses me off!
“One of the newsies on the LIVE WFAA reporting yesterday morning said that Texas Presbyterian has now been designated as the facility for all area ‘adult’ Ebola cases and a children’s hospital had been designated for all ‘child’ Ebola cases.”
Sounds like they are expected a LOT of ebola cases. So many that they have to separate the adults and children? Scary.
“I have no clue why they were sent there. I am so sad for each one of them.”
This is a criminal act by our criminal president. There is no reason for exposing the troops. Obola MUST be held responsible for any soldiers killed by Ebola and any transmission by soldiers within the US.
He didn’t stop the flights from West Africa. President zero is responsible for patient zero.
Haven’t heard a peep about Duncans apartment mates....seems odd to me
“It’s not hard, put it takes intelligence and some inconvenience.” Add to that: commitment and sacrifice. If you or your family member have symptoms, don’t show up at the local urgent care and expect to be treated. If counties (all states) aren’t yet dedicating hospitals and clinics to ebola-care only, they better get on it. There needs to be a decision and commitment, along with an URGENT public announcement, that non-ebola facilities WILL NOT ACCEPT EBOLA PATIENTS. If we’re serious about stopping this, people need to pay attention and do their part. Seems like everything is in panic mode right now - people in direct involvement with this, including the CDC, are not taking time to THINK and plan. From what I’ve read and listened to in the media, it’s downright scary because it seems like they’re all idiots. We’ve got more brainpower here on FR than the whole CDC and Obama administration combined.
Someone here said because flu symptoms mimic early ebola that could be impossible...I say..set up “clean rooms” outside of hospitals...anyone who has visited Africa...or been around anyone who has been in Africa goes to those “clean rooms”
This virus multiplies and takes lives and their jobs and pensions will be the least of their worries. But they are so short cited, I don't think they can see past next Tuesday... We could be witnessing a breach of this nation by a foreign invader, in this case Ebola, of epic proportions. I can't believe the level of incompetence. Well, dead from Ebola taxpayers can't pay government pensions...maybe that will motivate them to impose air traffic restrictions.
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