A nurse who was part of the team that tended to fallen Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, has contracted the Ebola virus and is the first confirmed case of Ebola transmission within the United States. News about the infection came four days after the death of Duncan who had been admitted into the hospital and received treatment for Ebola for over a week.
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dir. Thomas Frieden, said that the nurse's identity is being withheld from the media, but confirmed that she is one of the female nurses who tended to the patient extensively on "multiple occasions." Director Friday and said that, at this time, it is unclear what led to her infection, and that they are studying any possibility of a safety breach.
With the information about the infection going public, questions about the readiness of hospitals around the country to deal with the Ebola virus. There are only a handful of highly specialized isolation facilities within the United States, and people are now questioning whether ordinary medical facilities, along with their medical staff, are truly prepared to deal with any more potential cases of the Ebola virus disease. The incident also intensified the trepidation surrounding the disease, particularly about how easily it can be spread. State health officials are quick to pacify these concerns, saying that the Ebola virus can only be transmitted through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
Chief clinical Officer, Daniel Varga, from the Texas Health Resources group that operates the Texas health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, said that, "We'd known that further cases of people are a possibility for those who were in close contact [with Duncan]." They now confirm that the nurse is under self-isolation inside her own home and is being subjected to twice-a-day temperature checks for monitoring. She first reported symptoms on Friday when she had a slight fever and brought herself directly to the hospital and was admitted into an isolation unit there. Preliminary diagnosis was conducted on Saturday and the results came in Sunday afternoon, confirming that the patient does have the disease. Local, state, and federal officials urged people to stay calm amid the unfortunate news.
