Written By: Pavitra Sampath | Published : October 15, 2014 5:06 PM IST
In a shocking turn of event, another healthcare worker in Dallas, Texas has tested positive for Ebola. The worker had taken care of the first Ebola patient in the US, Thomas Duncan, who died on October 8th.
The worker reported to work with fever and was immediately quarantined and tested for infection with the Ebola virus at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, according to reports by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
While the initial tests confirmed the infection, the worker's doctors are still awaiting the results of the confirmatory test being performed at the CDC in Atlanta.
Further the hospital has performed a preliminary interview with the worker to identify all the people he/she was in contact with to identify any more cases of possible infection. The hospital plans to monitor those people based on the type of contact the worker had with them.
Identifying the reason for the spread of the infection, the largest U.S. nurses' union said that Thomas Duncan was left in an open area in the emergency room of the hospital and nurses treating him worked for days without any proper protective gear and had to manage constantly changing protocols.
While officials still deny knowing how the first healthcare worker, Nina Pham, got infected, the second case points to negligence beyond how one individual may have donned and removed personal protective garb.
In a statement the CDC said, 'An additional health care worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern, and the CDC has already taken active steps to minimize the risk to health care workers and the patient.'
Image source: IANS
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