Dallas nurse contracts Ebola while treating infected patient

By Balitang America, ABS-CBN North America Bureau

Oct. 13, 2014

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – A nurse from Dallas, Texas, who was treating a patient from Liberia, as been infected by the Ebola virus.

The Dallas nurse reportedly wore a mask, gown, shield and gloves. The Liberian patient she was treating was in isolation at the hospital where she worked, so it is still a mystery how she became infected with Ebola.

Health officials in Texas are still trying to figure out how the Ebola virus was transferred from a dying man to a nurse, who has now been identified as 26-year-old Nina Pham.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say she’s now clinically stable.

Pham has become the first person to contract the deadly virus inside the United States.

Authorities say she got it while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who flew to Dallas, and died from the virus Wednesday.

The CDC says Pham may not be the only person that became infected.

“If this individual was infected and we don’t know how, within the isolation unit, then it is possible that other individuals could be infected as well,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. “So we consider them to be potentially at risk.”

An official with direct knowledge of the investigation says the nurse was interviewed several times, and there are inconsistencies in the type of protective gear she wore, and the process used to put it on and take it off.

“A breach in protocol may be, that the protocol is fine,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “They were not trained properly.”

Meantime, Ebola scares in other parts of the U.S., in Boston, a man who traveled to Liberia is being monitored after he complained of headache and body ache.

However, the CDC calls him a low risk for Ebola.

And another Ebola alert disrupted travel at LAX after a passenger with flu-like symptoms led to a massive response from the LA Fire Department.

It turned out to be a false alarm.

The CDC says that there appeared to be only one person who was in contact with Pham once she became infectious. The CDC director says his agency may rethink the way it addresses Ebola infection control.