EBOLA grabs second victim in Texas.

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

The Texas Nurse Who Contracted Ebola Was Wearing a Protective Suit. She’s Not the First Western Health Professional to Have a Suit Fail Her.

Oct. 12, 2014 10:22am Zach Noble The Blaze

As news erupted Sunday morning that a female nurse in Texas had been infected with Ebola, perhaps the most frightening part of the story was the revelation that she came in contact with the first U.S. Ebola patient during his second hospital visit — meaning she didn’t catch the virus unawares, before health workers knew the man had Ebola.

Rather, she was fully dressed in a protective suit — gown, gloves, mask and shield — when she interacted with the man who since died of his Ebola infection.

But the case in Texas is not the first time that protective suits have failed in the developed world.

Spanish health worker Maria Teresa Romero Ramos, the first person to contract Ebola outside of Africa, was also wearing full protective gear when the virus was transmitted to her in a Madrid hospital.

The important question: Why do these protective suits keep failing?

The short answer might be “human error.”

In Ramos’ case, the Spanish health worker admitted that she may have removed her suit incorrectly, touching her own face as she took it off.

In the case of the Texas nurse, it remains to be seen how she contracted the virus — but Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday that the CDC would investigate safety protocol breaches at Texas Presbyterian hospital, specifically examining how health workers removed their protective gear after treating the first U.S. Ebola patient.

In other words, the Texas nurse may have made the same mistakes the Spanish health worker made.

The failure of protective gear highlights the intense need for proper medical training, Larry Greenemeier noted in Scientific American prior to Sunday’s news, and the failure also serves to shine a spotlight on how easily the disease can be spread.

Greenemeier noted that Ebola can be spread through contaminated bodily fluids, including mucus and vomit, meaning that, for instance, if an infected person sneezed on a tabletop and someone else later touched the tabletop, they could potentially catch the virus.

As the cases in Spain and Texas show, Ebola transmission is no longer limited to Africa, where the outbreak began.

Until health workers are properly trained and equipped to protect themselves from Ebola, they will continue to be at risk of catching the very virus they are working to contain — and spreading the outbreak further.

Nobody seems to want to even question the "protective suit". Is it possible the Ebola virus can penetrate the protective suit?

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Two days after a man in Texas was diagnosed with Ebola, Dr. Gil Mobley, a Missouri doctor, checked in and boarded a plane dressed in full protection gear Thursday morning, Oct. 2, 2014, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He was protesting what he called mismanagement of the crisis by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Spink)

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This Oct. 3, 3014, file photo, shows an isolation room that could be used to quarantine an Ebola patient at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn. The hospital has put together an action plan and staff will be going through training to deal with the possibility of an Ebola virus infected patient. (AP Photo/Chattanooga Times Free Press, Doug Strickland, File)

This picture shows part of an isolation room.

What isn't shown is what should be a vapor interlock and changing room for the workers who have to enter and exit.

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2nd article

Health care worker at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas tests positive for Ebola

By MELISSA REPKO and SHERRY JACOBSON

Staff Writers

[e-mail]; [e-mail]

Published: 12 October 2014 05:18 AM

Updated: 12 October 2014 01:12 PM

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A Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital health care worker in Dallas who had “extensive contact” with the first Ebola patient to die in the United States has contracted the disease

The infected person detected a fever Friday night and drove herself to the Presbyterian emergency room, where she was placed in isolation 90 minutes later. A blood sample sent to the state health lab in Austin confirmedSaturday night that she had Ebola — the first person to contract the disease in the United States.

The director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that the infection in the health care worker, who was not on the organization’s watch list for people who had contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, resulted from a “breach in protocol.” 

"We have spoken with the health care worker," who cannot "identify the specific breach" that allowed the infection to spread, said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. The CDC has sent additional staff members to Dallas to “assist with the response,” he said.

Frieden said exposure can result from a “single inadvertent slip.” He cautioned: "Unfortunately it is possible in the coming days we will see additional cases of Ebola" in health care workers.

Texas health commissioner David Lakey said the health care worker had "extensive contact" with Duncan. The nurse, who missed two days of work before going to the emergency room, is believed to have had contact with one person while symptomatic. Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person, can only be transmitted from infected people showing symptoms.

"We have been preparing for an event like this,” Lakey said.

Presbyterian chief clinical officer Daniel Varga said the exposure occurred during Duncan’s second visit to the hospital. Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola in the United States, went to the Presbyterian emergency room Sept. 26 and was sent home with antibiotics only to return to the hospital on Sept. 28. He was diagnosed with Ebola and died Oct. 8

Officials haven’t released the name of the health care worker or her job description. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he has spoken to the health care worker's parents, who have asked for privacy. 

"Let's remember that this is a real person who is going through a great ordeal. So is that person's family," Jenkins said.

The second Ebola patient lives in the 5700 block of  Marquita Avenue in East Dallas, where the person’s apartment was decontaminated Sunday. While the CDC didn’t consider the person to be at “high risk” of contracting Ebola, the health care worker had been monitoring for signs of the disease, including checking for fever twice daily.

The person's car was decontaminated and the common area of an apartment complex was cleaned by a hazardous-material team Sunday. A pet also lived in the person’s apartment. 

Dallas police have cordoned off the East Dallas apartment, where a frenzy of news media and helicopters circling above have drawn neighbors outside. Police officers and a CDC representative talked to residents Sundaymorning and distributing papers about Ebola symptoms. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings also visited with residents. 

"It just breaks my heart. ... She was just an innocent woman who took care of someone who was sick,” said neighbor Colleen Watson said. "She did her job, and probably with full empathy and kindness, and for this to happen to her is so much sadder than any other case.”

Dina Smith was holding her 3-year-old daughter, still in disbelief that the first contracted case was just a block away. She said Mayor Mike Rawlings and staff members from the mayor's office visited Sunday morning and talked to residents.

"I'm not particularly concerned because from everything I heard, she was a nurse and took every precaution," Smith said. "But you hear the helicopters overhead and see the news, and it makes you pay more attention.”

Lindsey Carpenter, 33, said her roommate had searched on the Internet to find out why news helicopters were flying over their neighborhood. He barged into her room at 9:30 a.m. when he found an answer: "There's an Ebola patient in the neighborhood.”

Carpenter, who works in a hospital in Lewisville, said she hopes Presbyterian investigates how the nurse contracted Ebola -- especially because she was exposed to Duncan during his second visit to the hospital. 

"They were prepared with hazmat suits and everything," she said. "I wonder how she got it. It's really puzzling. There's probably more to the story that we don't know.”

Texas Health says "the Emergency Department at Texas Health Dallas is diverting ambulance traffic with the exception of patients showing symptoms of  Ebola Virus Disease. The ED is open and seeing patients arriving by any other means."

Staff writers Melissa Repko, Sherry Jacobson, Claire Cardona, Eva-Marie Ayala and Matthew Haag contributed to this report.

Update at 12:21 p.m.

At the end of Marquita, morning services were underway at Skillman Church of Christ. The congregation first became aware of the deadly disease when medical missionary Dr. Kent Brantly, who many congregants know, contracted the illness.

Then many became close to the son of Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the disease. Now pastor Joel Sanchez was telling the church that a healthcare worker just a few blocks away has Ebola.

"As much as we are connected to the world, it's easy to see something on the television and think of it as happening over yonder, over there," he said. "But when it hits close to home, it becomes real."

The congregation prayed for the healthcare worker who Sanchez said put another in front of herself because he had a need. They prayed for the family of Duncan. But then Sanchez asked his congregation not to forget the thousands suffering in West Africa, an area with limited medical resources  where nearly 4,000 people have died from Ebola.

"We can't forget those people whose only course of action is to pray that they don't get it," Sanchez said.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dr. Daniel Varga held a news conference Sundaymorning to inform the public that a health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas test positive for the Ebola virus after coming in close contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan.