2nd person in U.S. tests positive for Ebola
CNN) - A health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has tested positive for Ebola after a preliminary test, the state's health agency said in a statement.

Confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The employee helped care for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Duncan died on Wednesday. www.cnn.com/2014/10/12/health/ebola/index.html

The originating press release: https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/news/releases/20141012.aspx


.....a little more info about the 2nd patient.
Texas Patient Tests Positive for Ebola

News Release 

A health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for the Ebola patient hospitalized there has tested positive for Ebola in a preliminary test at the state public health laboratory in Austin. Confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. 

The health care worker reported a low grade fever Friday night and was isolated and referred for testing. The preliminary ​test result was received late Saturday. 

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread." 

Health officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures. People who had contact with the health care worker after symptoms emerged will be monitored based on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus. 

Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person or exposure to contaminated objects such as needles. People are not contagious before symptoms such as fever develop. 

Yes A, I'm expecting more. .

I somewhat thought they wouldn't announce a "suspected" case, and that they would announce a positive case instead.   Save a couple more days in panic and scrutiny,  Whenever possible, it's also ideal to announce this types of bad news on a Sunday.

Lovely.  Duncan's girlfriend and Jesse Jackson are suing the healthcare workers, after Duncan also gave them Ebola.  A rough couple weeks for those healthcare workers on the duncan transmission chain.

There having a press conference at 7:30 AM CST, they should be better organized this time as they have had 30+_ hours to prepare the message.

Pheasant - I agree. don't be surprised if they mention another suspected case.

Good point. I was thinking of the irony of the gf and the healthcare workers all being treated together.who knows how large this cluster will be. I'm assuming there will be at least 2 - 3 health workers and possiblly a family member of theirs. No way is that one center equipped. Possibly make a quarantine treatment facility like in w Africa for this cluster, although those might not work well as we've seen. Jesse Jackson can be first in line for visiting gf.

They may announce another suspected case this morning.

Now, the second patient was wearing full face shield and CDC guidelines . This is scary.

CNN identify her as a female nurse, low risk, was in self monitoring pool. Hospital have closed A&E.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/12/health/ebola/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

CNN is reporting the nurse was in full protective gear. A few lines down it explains how difficult it is to actually catch this virus. This is beyond frustrating!

That's the impression I get at press conference. It was like they were waiting to deliver a bomb shell, which they did....after the officials had left when the last doctor on the podium blurted out about the nurse wearing full protective gear as recommended by CDC...,.they hit the public with that statement and scampered off stage..

It drives me crazy even how the news stations state that is was probably because they touched something while taking off the suit. Well , I can tell you if I was taking off a suit and knowing I was dealing with ebola I would be so careful. I am sure if these person had full protective gear on then they would have been careful also. Dallas will now stop talking to prevent panic. Not sure we can handle more cases.

Looks like they might be putting another dog down soon, which is the pet of the new case.

A Texas health care worker who was in full protective gear when they provided hospital care for an Ebola patient who later died has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. If the preliminary diagnosis is confirmed, it would be the first known case of the disease being contracted or transmitted in the U.S.

Dr. Daniel Varga, of the Texas Health Resources, said during a news conference Sunday that the worker wore a gown, gloves, mask and shield when they provided care to Thomas Eric Duncan during his second visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Varga did not identify the worker and says the family of the worker has "requested total privacy."

Varga says the health care worker reported a fever Friday night as part of a self-monitoring regimen required by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said another person also remains in isolation, and the hospital has stopped accepting new emergency room patients.

Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas.

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement Sunday. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."

Health officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures. They said people who had contact with the health care worker after symptoms emerged will be monitored based on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus.

Officials said they also received information that there may be a pet in the health care worker's apartment, and they have a plan in place to care for the animal. They do not believe the pet has signs of having contracted Ebola.

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the health care worker's Ebola diagnosis shows there was a clear breach of safety protocol. Frieden on Sunday told CBS' "Face the Nation" that all those who treated Duncan are now considered to be potentially exposed, though couldn't give an exact number. Health care workers treating Duncan were directed to follow CDC protocol that included wearing protective gear. Among the things CDC will investigate is how the workers took off that gear — because removing it incorrectly can lead to a contamination.

Judge Clay Jenkins, Dallas County's top administrative official, said the unidentified health care worker is a "heroic" person who "was proud to provide care to Mr. Duncan." He said the health care worker's family has requested privacy because they are "going through a great ordeal."

More than 4,000 people have died in the ongoing Ebola epidemic centered in West Africa, according to World Health Organization figures published Friday. Almost all of those deaths have been in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/state-health-officials-2nd-ebola-case-texas-26135213

Here comes PETA....   We love our pets in these parts. 

We're going to have several more cases in this Duncan Transmission Chain and cluster. 

Interesting next few days coming up.

Is it me or do I see bushes growing around that hospital?

That's big news!!!

It's too bad that all hospitals can't have this kind of set up in the link I have included below. It's a good read. We need our health care workers. We need them to protect themselves so when they go home they aren't infecting others. Hospitals need to follow this hospital's protocol.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/us/ashoka-mukpo-ebola-nebraska-hospital.html?_r=0

This is all very concerning. We are told that it doesn't spread easily but consistently see that people in full protective gear are being infected. This virus, once it latches on.. REALLY latches.. Does it borough into the skin via pores, etc?

Hi sleusha, Ebola is a super-bug of sorts.   Any virus this lethal is usually supped-up in all areas and very robust.   The perfect little bug and killing machine, aside of it not being airborne.  My own opinion.

During press conference they were specifically asked when she had contact with Duncan, and they said it was during his second visit and not the first visit. They never said why they came to this conclusion. Perhaps she wasn't working that shift, or is not an A&E nurse, it did seem the only thing they were confident about replying.

It is quite surprising that a HCW with full PPE becomes infected, yet the family members that cared for him with absolutely no PPE seem likely to have avoided it. ( they are still asymptomatic and well enough to be giving extensive press conferences, so I do believe the CDC on this. They also getting blood draws which are remaining negative)

This could indicate_

1) The infected nurse was exposed at a later date after admission or directly after death when viral load reached its peak, and was higher than when family were caring for him, touching and cleaning up after him.

2) Alternatively a frightening thought that the wearing of PPE actually increases your chance of being infected, especially as they deemed her involvement in Duncan's care as low risk. ( so no obvious mistake like needlestick injury, or obvious recorded breach or accident). I mean if Duncan had done a Sawyer ( Nigeria), and gone a mental she would have moved to high risk.

Perhaps taking the PPE off is at fault or perhaps the spraying of chlorine while they are doing this is creating aerosols, or wet facemasks is allowing virus to bind, or perhaps the concentration of chlorine is wrong, or virus has become more resistant to chlorine and needs other agents, ......I will shut up, but these are all things that need to be addressed.

I used the link provided by Hazelpad. It was heavily edited and overall only about 2 minutes of video.

Hazelpad, was the link you provided the original video? Or was it already edited when you posted to the forum?

..... because from where I sit it looks like CNN cropped out the damning bits.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top federal health officials said Sunday that the Ebola diagnosis in a health care worker who treated Thomas Eric Duncan at a Texas hospital clearly indicates a breach in safety protocol.

But the unidentified worker has been unable to pinpoint where that breach might have occurred, according to Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Á single inadvertent slip can result in contamination," he said during a briefing.

He said the CDC has recommended that the hospital where the worker is being treated — and where Duncan died Wednesday — should keep "to an absolute minimum" those who care for Ebola patients and should perform only those procedures that are essential to a patient's treatment.

The agency also called on the hospital to put in place a "full-time individual responsible for oversight of infection control."

"In terms of safe and effective care, we had already begun several days ago to ramp up the education and training of health care workers at this facility," Frieden said.

He cautioned that additional health care workers could develop Ebola even as he expressed confidence that the "chain of Ebola" could be broken.

He said that the CDC, as part of its investigation on how the worker became infected, would look at dialysis and intubation, procedures with the potential for spreading infectious material, as well as the removal of protective gear. Removing it incorrectly can lead to a contamination, he said.

There is a balance in the use of personal safety equipment, Frieden said, and "putting more on isn't always safer. It may make it harder, to provide effective care."

Earlier, on CBS' "Face the Nation," Frieden said the worker was doing self-monitoring. "Immediately when they developed symptoms, they isolated themselves, they were promptly isolated at the hospital so that any further spread from that individual was stopped," he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there "certainly had to have been an inadvertent, innocent breach of protocol of taking care of a patient within the personal protective equipment."

"We do know what when you do follow that protocol, it works," he told ABC's "This Week."

The virus that causes Ebola is not airborne and can only be spread through direct contact with bodily fluids — blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — of an infected person who is showing symptoms.

In Spain, a nursing assistant diagnosed with the virus after caring for an Ebola patient recalled touching her gloved hand to her face while removing equipment and health authorities there are looking at that as a possible cause of infection.

"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 said. "But we also know it's hard."

Source: http://townhall.com/news/health/2014/10/12/cdc-protocol-breach-in-treating-ebola-patient-n1904107