A second healthcare worker who treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan at a Dallas hospital has tested positive for the disease.
Texas Department of State Health Services officials confirmed the second transmission of the deadly virus early this morning. Last week the first transmission of the disease was confirmed by the CDC after 26-year-old nurse Nina Pham tested positive. She has since received a blood transfusion and is reportedly doing well.
The CDC blamed a breach in protocol for the first transmission of the disease and Director Thomas Frieden said a second case of Ebola transmission was highly likely. Safety standards and procedures are under review at the hospital and the CDC is monitoring more than 100 people for symptoms.
UPDATE: According to reporting from the Associated Press, protocol at the Dallas hospital where Duncan was treated and eventually died was really bad.
A Liberian Ebola patient was left in an open area of a Dallas emergency room for hours, and the nurses treating him worked for days without proper protective gear and faced constantly changing protocols, according to a statement released late Tuesday by the largest U.S. nurses’ union.
Nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments, worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for a patient with explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting, said Deborah Burger of National Nurses United.
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